Lindsey Vonn, overall women's standings leader in the Alpine skiing World Cup, is to end her season early due to injury.
"Today I am making the difficult decision to end my season and leave the World Cup circuit due to an injury I suffered last Saturday," Vonn posted on Facebook.
"Because I am currently leading the overall World Cup standings, this is one of the toughest decisions of my career."
The decision to stop racing with a handful of races remaining is likely to hand a maiden overall title to Switzerland's Lara Gut.
Vonn currently leads on 1,235 points with Gut on 1,207 and Germany's Viktoria Rebensburg on 914.
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Vonn suffered a knee injury racing a Super-G in Soldeu, Andorra, on February 27 but skied the next day to earn points in an alpine combined despite already being diagnosed with a hairline fracture.
But further examination revealed the injury was more serious than first thought.
"I went to Barcelona where more precise MRI and CT equipment was available and scans were performed on Tuesday morning," Vonn said.
"Those images showed that there was not just one hairline fracture, but in fact three. And the fractures are not hairline, but instead they are significant enough that they are not sufficiently stable to permit me to safely continue skiing.
"Further damage any of the fragments could result in a serious surgery that would risk my future in ski racing. With the World Championships in St. Moritz (France) next year and the Winter Olympics in South Korea the following year, I cannot take that risk."
Vonn, who holds a record number of World Cup victories, had already secured the downhill discipline title for a record eighth time prior to her injury.
