Lindsey Vonn (USA) suffered a hard crash during the Olympic women's downhill on Sunday in Cortina.

Moments into her run, she clipped a race gate and lost her balance. She fell hard on the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre snow and tumbled down the piste until coming to a stop.

A course hold was put into place and medical personnel rushed to attend to the 41-year-old.

After about 15 minutes, Vonn was airlifted off the slope for further evaluation.

U.S. Ski & Snowboard provided a statement on Vonn:

"Lindsey Vonn fell in the Olympic downhill and will be evaluated by medical staff."

 

Vonn's sister Karin Kildow watched the frightening events unfold from the grandstands. 

"That definitely was the last thing we wanted to see," Kildow told NBC correspondent Cara Banks. "It happened quick. When that happens you’re just like immediately hoping she’s okay. It was scary, because when you start to see the stretchers being put out, it's not a good sign. But she really, we were just saying, like the Man in the Arena, she just dared greatly. She put it all out there, so it's really hard to see.

"[Lindsey] always goes 110%. There's never anything less. I know she put her whole heart into it, and sometimes, things happen. It's a very dangerous sport, and there's a lot of variables at play, so I don't really know exactly what happened, but it did look like a pretty rough fall. We're just hoping for the best."