Lindsey Vonn's defiant bid to win the Winter Olympic downhill at the age of 41, on a rebuilt right knee and a badly injured left knee, ended Sunday in a frightening crash that left her with a broken leg and saw her taken to safety by a rescue helicopter for the second time in nine days.

Vonn lost control within moments of leaving the start house, clipping a gate with her right shoulder and pinwheeling down the slope before ending up awkwardly on her back, her skis crisscrossed below her and her screams ringing out. After medical personnel arrived, she was treated for long, anguished minutes as a hush fell over the crowd waiting far below at the finish line.

She was strapped to a gurney and flown away, possibly ending the skier's storied career. She was taken to a clinic in Cortina, then transferred to a larger hospital in Treviso, a two-hour drive to the south.

She was being "treated by a multidisciplinary team" and "underwent an orthopedic operation to stabilize a fracture reported in her left leg," the Ca' Foncello hospital said in a statement. The United States Ski Team said Vonn was "in stable condition and in good hands with a team of American and Italian physicians".

"She'll be OK, but it's going to be a bit of a process," said Anouk Patty, chief of sport for US 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."

Breezy Johnson, Vonn's teammate, became only the second US woman to win the Olympic downhill after Vonn did it 16 years ago. The 30-year-old Johnson held off Emma Aicher of Germany and Italy's Sofia Goggia on a bittersweet day for the team.

"I don't claim to know what she's going through, 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," said Johnson, whose injury in Cortina in 2022 ruined her hopes of skiing in the Beijing Olympics. "I can't imagine the pain that she's going through, and it's not the physical pain — we can deal with physical pain — but the emotional pain is something else."

Vonn had family in the stands, including her father, Alan Kildow, who stared down at the ground while his daughter was being treated after just 13 seconds on the course where she holds a record 12 World Cup titles. Others in the crowd, including rapper Snoop Dogg, watched quietly as the star skier was finally taken off the course. Fellow US star Mikaela Shiffrin posted a broken heart emoji on social media.

Vonn's crash was "tragic, but it's ski racing," said Johan Eliasch, president of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation.

"I can only say thank you for what she has done for our sport," he said, "because this race has been the talk of the Games and it's put our sport in the best possible light."

Agencies via Xinhua