Lindsey Vonn, 41, is a well known Olympic alpine ski racer. Vonn has competed in multiple Olympics, including the 2002 competition in Salt Lake City, which was her Olympic debut. She also competed in Turin in 2006 despite a training crash. Vancouver was where Vonn first won gold downhill in 2010, only to miss the next completion four years later due to an injury. In 2018 (Byeong Chong), Vonn earned bronze, then retired.

Vonn returned from retirement to compete in last month’s Milan-Cortina Olympics, but on February 8, she fell 13 seconds into her downhill event–a daring event she attempted even though nine days earlier she had ruptured her left anterior cruciate ligament.

The reason for Vonn’s accident was that she took a turn too tightly, snagged a gate in midair, and simply could not recover. The tumble looked rough and was indeed a rough hit for the champion skier, who was said to be screaming in pure agony. Vonn suffered  a complex tibia fracture, a fracture of her fibula head and her tibial plateau.

Vonn states that she regrets nothing and hopes to revisit skiing soon once she’s healed. But many people question whether an injured Vonn should have taken a spot from a more qualified Olympian. Yes, she wanted another run, but there were many talented younger athletes who would have killed for her spot. So in light of her serious injury, why did Team USA let her compete?

“I tried. I dreamed. I jumped,” Vonn said. She is currently stable and healing, and expressed no regrets over her run, willing to dream and risk it all.

“I hope if you take away anything from my journey,” she said, “it’s that you all have the courage to dare greatly. Life is too short not to take chances on yourself. Because the only failure in life is not trying.”