2010 Winter Olympics Lindsey Vonn Update: Could Delays Hurt Skier?

Lindsey Vonn should have been suiting up in preparation of her first Olympic medal of the 2010 Winter Games today.

Instead, she's holed up in her Whistler lodge baking banana bread and watching the world go by, rehabbing her injured right shin and counting her blessings that Mother Nature is conspiring in her quest for glory.

Officials made the call early today to cancel yet another women's downhill training session as a mix of rain and snow continued to fall overnight on Franz's Olympic run.

Women must complete one full training run in order to hold a race, and the first women's competition has now been pushed back to Wednesday, Feb. 17.

Whether or not Vonn's injury has been blown out of proportion by the media, the extended delay is only helping Vonn.

She will have had two full weeks to recover from the injury that she suffered a week before flying to Vancouver by the time her first event rolls around, and it is also worth noting that the downhill competition will place less stress on her shin than any other race.

She has only taken part in a warmup and course inspection since arriving in Whistler, and there's a very good chance that she will be in great shape to challenge for multiple gold medals next week.

She even opted to miss walking out with Team USA at the opening ceremony on Friday in a bid to speed up her recovery.

Vonn is scheduled to compete in all five events and she is favored by many to win at least two of the events, even with her sore leg. Deep bone bruises, while painful, are not like ligament tears, and Vonn will still be able to race even if her leg is sore.

She took pain killers and rubbed numbing cream on her leg prior to Thursday's warmup when she thought the practice would go ahead, and the worst-case scenario right now is that she will have to do the same if her boot is still causing her discomfort on Wednesday.

The only problem on the horizon is the same thing that has been her biggest advantage: the weather.

Right now, everything is working in Vonn's favor. The rain and snow have delayed, postponed, and canceled training runs and medal events, affording her time to relax and heal.

But should the same poor weather conditions into next week, there could be a situation where events are crammed together back-to-back just to get them in.

Organizers said today they are confident all the events will be completed by the time the closing ceremonies take place, but at what cost to Vonn?

We can assume that she will be close to fully fit for her first race. But then what? While her shin may be fine for one race after a fortnight of rest, how will it hold up under the pressure of three events in three days?

At the very least, she will have to race in medal events every other day between Wednesday and the end of the Olympics if she contests all five disciplines.

That is not taking into account further delays or training runs.

Right now Vonn is content with baking snacks and resting up, taking advantage of the weather and joking about her apparent good fortune.

Let's just hope her expression—and her fortunes—don't change with the wind.