Vonn’s final Olympics didn’t live up to the hype

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea – Twitter trolls might be the only ones excited to hear this, but it’s the truth: On the slopes, Lindsey Vonn was a bust at the 2018 Winter Olympics.

She arrived widely considered the best female Alpine skier ever, primed for a gold in the downhill and poised to win a medal in the super-G. She’ll head home with a measly bronze.

Before the women’s combined event Thursday, when Vonn was disqualified after missing a gate in the slalom portion of the race, she tweeted, “Man I forgot to wear deodorant today... if I hug you don’t judge me.”

Funny, the odor after the race smelled like rationalization.

“I’ve been injured so many times that the fact I’m even here is a victory in itself,” Vonn, 33, told reporters after her last race of the Pyeongchang Games and likely the final race of her Olympic career. “As a racer, as a person, I have to remember that as well, because I do want to win and I’m usually not satisfied with a bronze. In this situation, I think I can be very happy with what I’ve accomplished.’’

That’s Vonn’s prerogative. But no reason for anyone else to feel compelled to celebrate her Olympic performance — bronze in the downhill, sixth in the super-G and did not finish (DNF) in the combined — with chants of “U-S-A! U-S-A!” Although her injuries are undeniable, she was healthy enough to win the last two World Cup downhills before the Olympics, and even her father, Alan Kildow, sounded underwhelmed with the bronze medal.

“It’s great skiing, but it reminds me of something that Buddy Werner used to say,” Kildow told USA TODAY, referring to the U.S. Alpine skier who raced in the 1950s and 1960s. “He said there’s two places in the race, first and last, and I only want one of them.”

This is almost without a doubt her final Olympics; she has basically said that. She will stay for a while on the World Cup circuit, where she needs six victories to pass Ingemar Stenmark’s record of 86. She is a three-time Olympic medalist. With her bronze in the downhill, the 33-year-old became the oldest to medal in an Alpine event.

Vonn won gold in the downhill in the

2010 Games and, after missing the

2014 Olympics because of a knee injury, this was a chance to gild her stellar racing career with another gold.

Yet it’s fair to wonder if she was distracted. At times, it felt as if she spent as much time on Twitter as she did on the slopes. She tweeted about looking for a Valentine’s date, about the Trump-loving trolls attacking her and then that missing deodorant.

Most reporters (present company included) ate it up. With the media, she was gracious, articulate, candid, funny and generous with her time. Too bad there was no medal awarded for that.

It was the one gold she deserved.