When Lindsey Vonn felt the pain of ski racing crashes, she often thought of what her mom went through in childbirth.
“I came back from my injuries, but she could never come back from her stroke,” Vonn told NBC Sports’ Kathryn Tappen ahead of “On Her Turf: Inspiring Greatness” on NBCSN on Sunday, Mother’s Day, at 8 p.m. ET.
Vonn never heard a complaint from her mom, Linda Krohn. Not after the stroke caused minor paralysis in her left leg, which left her with a limp. Not after Krohn spent several months in the hospital thereafter.
“Seventy-five percent of the people die from the stroke I had,” Krohn said, according to The New York Times in 2010. “I went in to have Lindsey on Oct. 18, 1984, and I don’t remember anything for the next seven weeks. After five days in the hospital, the nurse came by and said, ‘I’m sorry, but your baby needs to leave.’ I didn’t even understand I had a baby.”
Krohn went on to have four more kids, including a set of triplets. When Vonn was 11, the budding skier moved from Minnesota to Colorado to advance in the sport. Krohn went with her, leaving her job of 17 years.
“My mom is tough as nails,” Vonn said. “She just has always been kind of one of those silent, tough mothers that you could always lean on for advice. She set a really good example for me.”
In “On Her Turf: Inspiring Greatness,” Tappen and Rebecca Lowe will honor moms with guests across sports, including Olympic champions Dara Torres (who earned three swimming silver medals as a mom) and Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson and Monique Lamoureux-Morando (PyeongChang Olympic hockey champions returning from childbirth).
The three-hour show airs on NBCSN and live streams here and on the NBC Sports app.
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