The defiant Olympic comeback of Lindsey Vonn came to a devastating halt Sunday after the 41-year-old ski legend crashed just seconds into the women’s downhill, forcing her to be airlifted from the course in what may mark the final moment of her storied career.

Vonn, racing on a rebuilt right knee and a badly injured left one, lost control almost immediately after leaving the starting gate. She clipped a gate with her right shoulder, pinwheeled violently down the slope, and came to rest awkwardly on her back with her skis tangled beneath her. Her screams echoed across the mountain as medical personnel rushed in, bringing competition to a standstill.

For long, anguished minutes, Vonn lay on the snow as a hush fell over the crowd gathered near the finish line. She was eventually strapped to a gurney and flown away by rescue helicopter, the second time in nine days she had required emergency airlift after a crash. Her condition was not immediately known, with the U.S. Ski Team saying only that she would be evaluated.

“She’ll be OK, but it’s going to be a bit of a process,” said Anouk Patty, chief of sport for U.S. Ski and Snowboard. “This sport’s brutal, and people need to remember when they’re watching that these athletes are throwing themselves down a mountain and going really, really fast.”

The crash cast a shadow over what should have been a celebratory day for the American team. Breezy Johnson won gold, becoming only the second American woman to capture an Olympic downhill title after Vonn did so 16 years earlier. Johnson edged Germany’s Emma Aicher and Italy’s Sofia Goggia in a race that felt triumphant and heartbreaking all at once.

“I don’t claim to know what she’s going through,” Johnson said afterward, “but I do know what it is to be here, to be fighting for the Olympics, and to have this course burn you and to watch those dreams die.” Johnson, who missed the Beijing Games after a 2022 injury in Cortina, added that the emotional pain of such moments can cut deeper than the physical injuries.

Vonn’s family watched in stunned silence from the stands. Her father, Alan Kildow, stared down at the ground as she was treated after just 13 seconds on a course where she holds a record 12 World Cup victories. Others in attendance, including Snoop Dogg, stood quietly as the gravity of the moment settled in. Fellow American star Mikaela Shiffrin posted a broken heart emoji on social media.

“This is tragic, but it’s ski racing,” said Johan Eliasch, president of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation. He praised Vonn’s impact on the sport, saying her presence had made the downhill one of the most talked-about events of the Games.

All eyes had been on Vonn heading into the Olympics, where she was the feel-good story of the competition. After nearly six years away from elite racing and a partial titanium knee replacement, many questioned whether she could still contend. She answered almost immediately, returning to the top of the sport and arriving at the Games as the World Cup downhill leader and a gold-medal favorite.

That momentum was shaken nine days earlier in Switzerland, when she suffered yet another knee injury, including a ruptured ACL, bone bruise, and meniscus damage. Still, few were willing to count her out. For three decades, Vonn had raced through pain, including at the 2006 Turin Olympics, when she competed less than 48 hours after a hospitalizing fall.

Cortina had always been special for Vonn, a place where she earned the nickname “queen of Cortina” and dominated the Olympia delle Tofana course. She completed two training runs in the days leading up to Sunday’s race, testing her injured knee under clear, sunny skies.

“This would be the best comeback I’ve done so far,” Vonn said before the race. “Definitely the most dramatic.”