Skier Lindsey Vonn leaves the 2018 Winter Olympics with lots of tweets but just one medal

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea —Twitter trolls might be the only ones excited to hear this, but it’s the truth: On the slopes, Lindsey Vonn was a bust at the 2018 Winter Olympics.

She arrived here widely considered the best female Alpine skier ever, primed for a gold medal in the downhill and poised to win another medal in the Super-G.

She will head home with a measly bronze.

Before the women’s combined event Thursday, when Vonn was disqualified after missing a gate in the slalom portion of the race, she tweeted,  “Man I forgot to wear deodorant today... if I hug you don’t judge me.’’

Funny, the odor after the race smelled like rationalization.

“I’ve been injured so many times that the fact I’m even here is a victory in itself,’’ Vonn, 33, told reporters after what her last race of the Pyeongchang Games and likely the final race of her Olympics career. “As a racer, as a person I have to remember that as well because I do want to win and I’m usually not satisfied with a bronze. In this situation, I think I can be very happy with what I’ve accomplished.’’

More:Mikaela Shiffrin takes silver in Alpine combined while Lindsey Vonn fails to medal

More:U.S. women end Canada's streak to win hockey gold in shootout at 2018 Winter Olympics

That’s Vonn’s prerogative. But no reason for anyone else to feel compelled to celebrate her Olympic performance — bronze in the downhill, sixth in the Super-G and did not finish (DNF) in the combined — with chants of “U-S-A! U-S-A!” Although her injuries are undeniable, she was healthy enough to have won the last two World Cup downhill races before the Olympics and even her own father, Alan Kildow, sounded underwhelmed with the bronze medal.

“It’s great skiing, but it reminds me of something that Buddy Werner used to say,’’ Kildow told USA TODAY Sports, referring the U.S. Alpine skier who raced in the 1950s and 1960s. “He said there’s two places in the race, first and last, and I only want one of them.’’

This is almost without a doubt her final Olympics; she has basically said that herself. She will stay on the World Cup circuit for a while. She needs six World Cup victories to pass Ingemar Stenmark’s record of 86. She is a three-time Olympic medalist. And with her bronze in the downhill, the 33-year-old became the oldest skier to win a medal in an Alpine event.

Vonn won Olympic gold in the downhill at the 2010 Games and, after missing the 2014 Olympics because of a knee injury, this was a chance to gild her stellar racing career with another Olympic gold. Yet it’s fair to wonder if she was distracted.

At times, it felt as if she spent as much time on Twitter as she did on the slopes. The highlights: She tweeted about looking for a Valentine’s Date, tweeted about the Trump-loving trolls attacking her and, well, then there was  that missing deodorant.

Most reporters (present company included) ate it up. And with the media, she was gracious, articulate, candid, funny and generous with her time. Too bad for Vonn there was no Olympic medal awarded for that.

It was the one gold she deserved.