Lindsey Vonn sits out final race before Olympics but remains on track for Games after crash

Lindsey Vonn is sitting out a World Cup super-G race Saturday after crashing and injuring her left knee a day earlier but remains on track for the Milan Cortina Olympics, her coach told The Associated Press.

“No she is not racing today but preparing for Cortina as usual,” Chris Knight, Vonn’s personal head coach, said in a text message to The AP.

Vonn then posted on Instagram, “Unfortunately, I won’t be able to race today," adding, “Thank you for all of the love and support I have received. Means the world to me.

“Doing my best right now….,” Vonn concluded with praying hands and fingers-crossed emojis.

Vonn crashed in a downhill in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, on Friday and ended up in the safety nets. After skiing down to the bottom of the course, she was airlifted away for medical attention.

It still wasn’t clear what her injury was.

“I crashed today in the downhill race in Switzerland and injured my left knee. I am discussing the situation with my doctors and team and will continue to undergo further exams,” Vonn wrote on Instagram on Friday.

Vonn, a 41-year-old American, is expected to be one of the biggest stars of the Winter Games, which open next Friday. Her first race comes two days later in the women’s downhill.

Saturday's super-G was slated to be her final race before the Games.

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

United States' Lindsey Vonn at the finish line after crashing, during an alpine ski, women’s World Cup downhill, in Crans Montana, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (Alessandro della Valle/Keystone via AP)

United States' Lindsey Vonn holds her left knee after crashing, during an alpine ski, women's World Cup downhill, in Crans Montana, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)

United States' Lindsey Vonn grimaces as she approaches the finish area after crashing, during an alpine ski, women’s World Cup downhill, in Crans Montana, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)

United States' Lindsey Vonn approaches the finish area after crashing, during an alpine ski, women's World Cup downhill, in Crans Montana, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — A crowd is waiting to see you run a labyrinthine obstacle course you have never done before. You have to complete it with enough focus to avoid wrong turns, enough precision to ensure your foot touches certain spots and enough speed to beat dozens of rivals.

Also: You are a dog.

Specifically, you are one of the canine aces in Saturday's Westminster Kennel Club agility competition, which kicked off the storied club's milestone 150th dog show.

So how do you do it?

“It's training and connecting. And it's just the most wonderful sport ever,” handler Pam Vojtas said Saturday before a run with her Pyrenean shepherd, Madeleine. “She reads my mind.”

Or, as last year's Westminster-winning handler, Emily Klarman, put it in a recent interview, “Agility is a big conversation that we’re having with our dogs.”

The conversation is partly verbal, with handlers yelling such commands as “tunnel!” and “jump!” and dogs sometimes answering with barks of enthusiasm. But communication also happens as handlers place their bodies purposefully, aware that dogs can draw cues from gestures as subtle as the turn of shoulders, and they interpret the animals’ own body language to keep them on target.

“If they're looking at something, that's probably what they're thinking about,” Klarman said before a recent practice session with Swish, a border collie, at the UDog training center in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania.

Like a furry rocket, the lean, mottled, 5-year-old navigated jumps, close-set poles, tight turns, narrow ramps, a seesaw and other equipment as though it was in her DNA. To some extent, it is — border collies are renowned for their intelligence, intensity and nimbleness, and they have taken more than two-thirds of Westminster's agility titles. Klarman and her dog Vanish notched one of those winning runs; three others were piloted by UDog's founders, Jessica Ajoux and Perry DeWitt.

But regardless of breed, becoming an agility champion takes a lot of training, technique and strategy.

Scores are based on both time and accuracy, with penalty points if, for example, canines bound off seesaws and ramps without setting foot in the end section. To instill that habit, a handler might get the dog accustomed to walking onto a pad on the ground, then put that pad on the end of the obstacle and eventually remove the pad.

Dogs also must master different approaches to jumps, depending on whether they need to turn tightly after landing.

Agility trials don’t allow for leashes, treats or toys on the course, so dogs need to be motivated by the fun of the game and their relationship with their handlers. And, perhaps, the prospect of a reward afterward. Georgie, a golden retriever, gets a toy stuffed with steak, meatballs or hot dogs, handler Cindy McGovern said while awaiting a run Saturday.

Handlers need to memorize complex pathways through 20 obstacles. At Westminster, they don't get maps until the morning of the competition, then have a few minutes to walk the course and ponder, for instance, whether to cross ahead of or behind the dog on various turns.

“It's all about giving them the information they need,” handler Lee Ann Donner said between runs with her whippet, Gus.

Besides the mental and physical work, there's an emotional component. The animals “can definitely tell whether we're really excited and pumped up, or we're disappointed,” explains Klarman, who was careful not to let her feelings show when Vanish didn’t excel on a seesaw obstacle in the Westminster finals last year.

Westminster, considered the United States’ most illustrious dog show, added an agility competition in 2014. The popular sport introduced a faster-paced, more athletic and more all-embracing flavor to the traditional, buttoned-up parading of purebred dogs around rings. Agility is open to mixed-breed dogs, and a mix won in 2024.

A dog fan since she was a toddler, Klarman got into canine sports as a preteen, then got a nursing degree before realizing that she wanted to work with dogs as a career. Last year's Westminster win was a capstone.

“It really meant so much to showcase her and let the world know how special she is,” recalls Klarman, 33.

This year, she was cheering for her boyfriend, Peter Wirth, and his Pembroke Welsh corgi, named Welly.

Like a number of agility handlers, Wirth, 34, took up the sport simply because he had a very energetic dog that needed more stimulating activity than walks and fetch. Five years later, he and Welly returned to New York's Javits Center on Saturday for the Westminster contest and made the finals.

Klarman and Vanish stayed home, for a good reason. The dog's first litter of puppies is due next week.

FILE - Amy Gilmer, left, and her Chinese crested, Surfer Dude, wait backstage at Arthur Ashe stadium before competing in the agility preliminaries during the 147th Westminster Kennel Club Dog show, Saturday, May 6, 2023, at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

FILE - A handler and his dog compete in the agility preliminaries inside Arthur Ashe stadium during the 147th Westminster Kennel Club Dog show, Saturday, May 6, 2023, at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

FILE - Verb, a border collie, competes during the finals of the agility competition at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show in Tarrytown, N.Y., Friday, June 11, 2021. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

Emily Klarman, a Westminster Masters Agility Championship-winning dog handler, plays with Swish, a border collie, after a practice run at UDog Agility in Huntingdon Valley, Pa., on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Jennifer Peltz)