Rough recovery! Lindsey Vonn didn't appear to be in the best of spirits during an interview on the TODAY show Tuesday, Jan. 28. Earlier this month, the 29-year-old alpine skier was forced to pull out of competing in the Sochi Olympics due to a knee injury. Now, Vonn — who already has two medals — has signed on with NBC Sports as a correspondent for the Winter Games, but she hasn't quite accepted her new role on the sidelines.
"I feel OK. I guess I've been through this now once before so I kind of know the drill, unfortunately," Vonn told Matt Lauer while resting on a couch with her leg up in a brace and new dog Leo in her lap. "It's been almost two weeks, and it feels all right. It's a little bit less complicated than the first surgery. [They] didn't have to work on the MCL, but unfortunately had to reconstruct the ACL again and [the knee] also had significant meniscus damage. It was pretty major surgery despite being better than last time, but I'm recovering well. I'm just doing therapy, and am excited to be working with you guys."
"Is it going to be hard to watch the team arrive in Sochi, Lindsey?" Lauer asked.
"Yeah," Tiger Woods' girlfriend said with a laugh. "It's going to be so hard. It's already hard enough. You guys run commercials about Sochi about every two minutes, and it's killing me! I'm trying not to watch as much as much as I can. It's going to be really, really hard to watch the Alpine events. I always love watching the other athletes compete like in figure skating, luge and all that stuff, but it's going to be really hard to watch the Alpine events."
Vonn announced on Jan. 7 that she was pulling out of the Winter Olympics following a knee injury she sustained in November. She plans to compete in the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, but will be reporting for TODAY and NBC Sports in the U.S. for this year's Games.
"What are you going to be doing for us?" Lauer asked. "What are you looking forward to?"
"I'll tell you what I'm not looking forward to is waking up this early. That's not going to be fun," the athlete joked. "I've never done something like this before, and I'm looking forward to this new challenge."
