Sawt Falasteen - Heartache for Olympic downhill champion Johnson after Vonn's crash

Johnson is now world and Olympic champion in her favoured discipline after mastering the Olimpia delle Tofane piste in Cortina d'Ampezzo to pip Germany's Emma Aicher by 0.04sec.

But her wild run down was soon followed by images of Vonn being put in a stretcher to be evacuated by helicopter after smashing into the snow face first and rolling down the slope with her skis still attached.

Vonn had bravely attempted to compete for medals at the Milan-Cortina Games at the age of 41 and with no anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee following a crash in the last World Cup downhill before the Olympics.

"The work that we put in, the careers... my heart aches for her," Johnson told reporters.

"It's a tough road and it's a tough sport. I think that that's the beauty of the madness of it: that it can hurt you so badly but you keep coming back."

The 30-year-old added that she didn't have any information on Vonn's condition, but said that "her coach said that she was cheering for me in the helicopter".

"I hope for the best for her. I hope that it's not too bad... it's such a brutal sport sometimes," she said.

Johnson admitted that she had celebrated so wildly that she damaged her medal, showing reporters that it had separated from the ribbon and broken a connecting clip.

"I'm sure somebody will fix it, It's not like crazy broken," said a sheepish Johnson.

Johnson said that she will be taking part in the women's team combined on Tuesday but does't yet know with whom she will compete.

She won gold in the event at last year's world championships alongside Mikaela Shiffrin who arrived in Cortina on Saturday.

H.Darwish--SF-PST