In the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, American skier Lindsey Vonn won the gold medal for downhill skiing.

Vonn, not only considered the greatest female skier in American history, but one of the greatest skiers ever, sadly will not be competing in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

In Feb. 2013, after an extremely hazardous crash, Vonn tore up many of her ligaments and now, almost exactly a year later, the injuries sustained have not yet fully healed.

Vonn announced on the Jan. 7 that she would not be attending the Olympics so that her knee could continue to heal.

Some officials have expressed some concern about not having one of the biggest names in the Olympics this year. They fear that turn out and viewership will be down.
According to NBC, Jim Bell, an excutive producer of the Olympics, “There are plenty of established stars to go round, like Shaun White and there are always the unknowns. No one knew who the gymnasts were, but they became stars.”

Some potential new stars that could be part of filling this void come from our very own state of Minnesota. The U.S. men’s curling team, from the upper Minnesota area, won their berth into the Olympics with an impressive victory over Czech Republic.

The team is being led by John Shuster, who has competed in the last two winter Olympics, accompanied by Jeff Isaacson from Gilbert, John Landsteiner from Duluth, and Jared Zezel, a student of Bemidji State.