American skier and Olympic gold medalist Lindsey Vonn made a guest appearance on “Law & Order” last night, and she was so bad that they decided to cancel the whole show. Actually, she had filmed her scene before the decision not to renew the show for a 21st season was made, so it’s not like she cut the show with a broken champagne bottle or anything.

Upon learning on Thursday that her favorite show was in danger of being canceled, Vonn started a “Save Law & Order” page on Facebook. By Monday, the page had more than 15,700 Facebook users supporting her online effort. Vonn has more than 142,000 users connected with her own Facebook fan page. –Examiner.

Vonn played a secretary (bow chicka wow ow) who helped the detectives find some guy who was going to blow up a school, which is too bad, because I would have loved to see the show go out with a bang. But it’s not like the show won’t be on TV anymore. It’s in syndication everywhere. It’s as if Jerry Orbach never died.

Was there a more overrated athlete EVER than Bode Miller in the Turin Games four years ago? Dude did absolutely nothing in 2006, and then went o-fer in 2007 AND 2009, but decided to come back to the Olympics for one more shot at redemption. Oh, this might be a spoiler…

Defending overall World Cup champion Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway took silver [in the men's downhill], a slim 0.07 seconds behind, and Bode Miller of the United States snapped his medal drought at major events by taking the bronze, only 0.09 behind [gold medal winner and noted Swiss guy Didier] Defago.–SI.com.

Wouldn’t that be great to decide, “Yeah, I’d like to come back to the Olympics this year.” Most people train and sweat and sacrifice their whole lives, and this douche acts like the Games are just an invite to an office holiday party. Well, I’ve gotta see what else is going on. I mean, who all is gonna be there. Is it Bring Your Own? Because I’m totally not going if it isn’t Bring Your Own. Thanks for adding to the medal count. You make Andy Roddick’s press appear balanced and objective.

With the Winter Olympics only three days away, it’s hard to argue that any member of Team USA can expect to have as good a month as skier Lindsey Vonn already has. Vonn made the cover of Sports Illustrated‘s Olympic preview, and is one of the four Olympians featured in that magazine’s swimsuit issue. I don’t know exactly how much swimming she expects to accomplish in Vancouver, but that’s none of my concern. Vonn’s already off to an impressive run this February, and her month is only expected to get better. Lindsey’s gallery at SI.com.

Cody Marshall, an alpine skier for the U.S. ski team, remains in critical condition after suffering a severe head injury last week in a 20-foot fall from an escalator at a Park City, Utah mall.

Marshall plunged 20 feet from an escalator in Park City’s Main Street Mall late Wednesday after a night out with his teammates.

Marshall attempted to slide down the handrail of the out-of-order escalator but instead fell backward off it, according to Kelly and Park City police.

He was conscious and responsive when first responders arrived at the mall but his condition worsened in the hospital throughout the day Thursday — downgraded from serious to critical. [Rutland Herald]

This is a good example of why I should read all the way through a story before making a light-hearted Photoshop.  “Ha ha!  He fell from an escalator!  Look at this escalator-ski jump image I made!  What’s that?  Near death?  Oh.”  Best wishes to Marshall and his family, and we hope he makes a full recovery.  With Leather regrets the Photoshop.

(via)

Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn will compete in the slalom at the world championships this weekend, less than a week after severing a tendon in her had after slicing her thumb on a broken champagne bottle. I guess she thought to herself, “Do I really need both of these thumbs to ski?”

Vonn sliced her thumb when she grabbed a broken champagne bottle at a party celebrating her downhill victory on Monday. She traveled to Austria for surgery to repair a severed tendon.

She missed Thursday’s giant slalom and spent two days testing out a specially designed splint that will enable her to hold her ski pole.

I love how they specified that it was a ski pole, and not some random dude’s genitalia. How’d you like to have the guy that was supposed to get some at that party on Monday? I have a headache. I had a long day. I cut my hand on a champagne bottle. All women are liars. A transvestite told me that once, so maybe she was only half-right.

[Y! Sports]

Swiss skier Daniel Albrecht — the reigning super-combined world champion — is somehow in stable condition after flying ass-first for forty yards and landing on his neck and back in this brutal crash during a training run at the infamous Streif course in Kitzbühel, Austria.  Doctors have placed Albrecht into an induced coma and are unsure yet whether he can or will make a full recovery.

Yikes.  Pretty bad stuff.  I would never wish this on a skier.  Teenage skateboarders, sure.  They’re barely human.  But not a skier.

(thanks to Spencer for the heads-up)