American ski champion Lindsey Vonn is to miss next month’s Sochi Winter Olympics due to a right knee injury she sustained nearly a year ago, she said on Tuesday. “I am devastated to announce that I will not be competing in Sochi,” Vonn said on her Facebook page. “I did everything I possibly could to somehow get strong enough to overcome having no ACL [anterior cruciate ligament], but the reality has sunk in that my knee is just too unstable to compete at this level. On a positive note, this means there will be an additional spot so that one of my teammates can go for gold Lindsey Vonn “I’m having surgery soon so that I can be ready for the World Championships at home in Vail next February. “On a positive note, this means there will be an additional spot so that one of my teammates can go for gold.” The 29-year-old Vonn, who has 59 World Cup race victories to her credit and who is the reigning Olympic downhill champion, badly injured the knee while competing in a super-G at the World Championships in February. After reconstructive surgery on the joint and a lengthy lay-off, Vonn returned to World Cup competition at Lake Louise, Canada, in early December, but only after she reinjured the knee while training in Colorado in November. At Lake Louise, Vonn was 40th in the first downhill, 11th in a second downhill and fifth in a super-G. She then competed in a downhill at Val d’Isere in the French Alps just before Christmas, when she was watched by boyfriend Tiger Woods, but failed to finish the race as she skied out. “Unfortunately, I have no ACL and it just gave out on me,” she said at the time. Vonn said that she would compete in just one or two races before the Winter Olympics got under way in the Russian ski resort of Sochi on February 7. Her absence will deprive the Games of one of the biggest stars and draws in winter sport.