Ski legend follows up

“Pretty much taking the piss”: fierce criticism of Vonn

Headwind for Lindsey Vonn(Bild: Christof Birbaumer)

Lindsey Vonn and Markus Wasmeier will probably no longer be friends. "She said she was getting an artificial knee," said the German double Olympic champion when he was asked about the US American on the sidelines of the World Ski Championships. And it was precisely this sentence that he found "quite a joke".

As Wasmeier explains in an interview with Sport1, it is a "sliding plate that does not interfere with the bone, but is practically placed over it like a dental crown, if you explain it in layman's terms. That's something completely different." The 61-year-old has two artificial hips himself and therefore knows "what artificial is".

Before her first race, Vonn emphasized like a prayer wheel that she had really thought about her return. On social media, she was quite eloquent in her self-defense after some insulting comments from former competitors and former ski greats. "In my opinion, it's just a show," Wasmeier also said.

An indictment of the competition
But Vonn proved all the skeptics wrong. The 40-year-old even raced to a sensational fourth place in the super-G in St. Anton. "I didn't think it would happen so quickly. She really got herself in shape. I have respect for that," praised Wasmeier.

But it is also "an indictment" of the competition "that an older athlete, especially as she had already retired, can still finish in the top 10".