US skier Lindsey Vonn will not take part in this year’s Winter Olympic Games to be held in Sochi due to a right knee injury.

The 29-year-old skiing sensation from Vail, Colorado made the announcement on Tuesday. According to her spokesman Lewis Kay, Vonn is expected to have knee surgery shortly and therefore will not make the games.

Via Facebook, Vonn told her fans that she is devastated to miss out on the Winter Olympics. “The reality has sunk in that my knee is just too unstable to compete at this level,” she wrote.

In the last Winter Olympics, Vancouver 2010, Vonn won two medals (gold and bronze). She also boasts four World Cup ski championships, making her the most famous name in the Alpine skiing. If  Vonn was able to compete this time she would likely be the center of  U.S media attention during the Winter Games.

Vonn’s knee troubles started last February when she tore two ligaments in her right knee during the World Championships. She was out of commission for 10 months before the injury was re-aggravated after she tore a ligaments in a training crash last November. Adding to her woes, Vonn sprained her MLC during a race in France in December, barely a month after returning to competition.

“I did everything I possibly could to somehow get strong enough to overcome having no ACL,” Vonn wrote on her Facebook wall.

In spite of the setback, Vonn is refusing to be discouraged. She said she has now set her sights on the World Championship to be held in February in her hometown of Vail. Vonn also thinks that her absence from the team is an extra opportunity for one of her teammates to step up and “go for a gold” medal.

America is now left with Mikaela Shiffrin, who is the defending World Champion in Slalom and Julia Mancuso, who holds three Olympic medals. 

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Image via YouTube