Vonn 'bummed out' as crash effects rival

Lindsey Vonn said she was desperately sorry her crash forced USA team-mate Julia Mancuso to repeat her first run of Wednesday's giant slalom and hopes to heal the bad blood between them.

Vonn, who has a downhill gold and a bronze from the super-G but tumbled out of the super combined, was on her way to being the fastest down the Whistler Creekside course before she took a heavy fall with a quarter of the race to go.

The crash left her needing an x-ray on the little finger of her right hand.

The starlet's tumble came just before Mancuso was sent on the course by officials leaving the downhill and super-combined silver medallist to be yellow flagged more than halfway down, meaning she had to ski the entire race again.

Mancuso eventually completed her first of two runs in 18th position at 1.30sec behind leader Elisabeth Goergl of Austria, prompting Vonn to say she was sorry.

"I would never wish that on anyone, especially not my own team-mate," said Vonn, who will decide whether to ski Friday's slalom competition once she knows her x-ray results.

"I know she was disappointed and I know she is mad and frustrated and probably mad at me, but I can't help that I fell.

"It is hard to go again, especially in giant slalom when you are so physically tired, she pretty much did the whole run and then she has to go up and do it all over again.

"(At that point) all your wax is off your skis, plus she went 15 skiers after when she normally would have run and the course was deteriorating quite a bit, so she had a huge disadvantage. I feel terrible.

"I was having a great run and I wish I had finished and come down and not had her been flagged.

"That was absolutely not what I wanted, but it happens in ski racing and all you can do is deal with the hand you are dealt."

Vonn also revealed there was friction between the pair even before the crash, but didn't go into details.

"It definitely has hurt me that she said some negative things about me and all I can do is support her like I always have been and hope that she reciprocates that," said Vonn.

"I am always proud an American is doing well and I was proud of her for being on the podium in downhill and super combined and it bums me out."

Having had a shin injury coming into the Games, plus back pain and now a finger injury, Vonn said she was smiling nevertheless.

"I'm just a little beat up right now, things don't seem to be going my way," she said. "I just hope that my finger is okay, so I can race on Friday.

"I am still smiling because I went down fighting.

"I felt like I was skiing well the whole way down, I was making really solid turns and my husband (and coach Thomas Vonn) had told me the course was deteriorating especially over the last bump, right where I fell.

"At the end of the turn, my ski got caught in the soft snow and my inside knee hit my chin and I got twisted up and tangled in the nets before I could make a recovery.

"I ended up tangled up in the nets like a pretzel."