Video: US skier Lyndsay Vonn airlifted to hospital after crashing at alpine ski world championships in Austria Vonn in happier times The race resumed after Vonn was helped from the piste but top skiiers Maria Hoefl-Riesch and Anna Fenninger immediately made mistakes to also drop out. Vonn had tumbled on the piste halfway down in a race which started three-and-a-half hours behind schedule given the poor visibility. Vonn hurt her right knee as she nearly somersaulted on the snow and was heard screaming in pain on the side of the course. The crash came almost exactly one year before the start of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Vonn returned to the circuit last month after taking a four-week break from racing to fully recover from an intestinal illness that put her in a hospital for two days in November. Vonn had reportedly hired bodyguards recently to handle increased media scrutiny after rumours she was in a relationship with golfer Tiger Woods. Super-G winner Tina Maze reacts after learning of Vonn's crash Slovenia's Tina Maze won super-G gold here Tuesday in an opening world championship race that came close to being cancelled due to fog and was overshadowed by a bad crash by US ski star Lindsey Vonn. Current World Cup leader Maze finished with a time of 1min 35.39sec, ahead of Switzerland's Lara Gut at 0.38sec and American Julia Mancuso in third place at 0.52sec.