Luck Finally Failed Lindsey Vonn

Lindsey Vonn had dreams, and hers had a definite expiration date. She had one last legitimate crack at an Olympic downhill medal because she is 41 years old, and she had to be perfect because the infrastructure of her knees seemed to have just celebrated their 70th birthdays. It was a romantic tale, one hailing the echoes of past greatness in the face of medical imperatives, and it would be a commercial and social bonanza if she could pull it off.

But the actuarial tables are always a heavy favorite, nonetheless, due to the weight of the logic. The fantasies of possibility are always prohibitive underdogs to the intractable nature of long odds. Thus, her crash and broken leg during the opening stages of her run Sunday served as an abject lesson for those who underestimate the amorphous nature of adversity. And, yes, age is part of adversity, especially when it is perched atop battered legs.

Indeed, she had barely been medevac'd off the hill en route to surgery when the tut-tuts of the practiced know-it-alls began. Romance is great and all, but when the pocket aces beat the seven-deuce the way they almost always do, well, the accompanying cautionary tales follow within seconds.