The whole situation with Vonn I think has to be treated differently than other athletes and the sport itself, she is certainly not the only athlete to be faced with this situation in the history of the Olympics. This is her last Olympics and pride and fame are big (why we needed a whole press conference for her first injury.....). It rubs people the wrong way because of this. Just because you have the drive to continue and do your last Olympics does not mean you have to compete. I'm sure she and her doctors talked a lot about this but IMO there really wasn't any question that she was going to try and run irrespective of any advice from her docs short of literally not being able to function, it's her last Olympics.
It's not about the athletes trying and pushing so hard, there are other athletes who have injured themselves but none have had the press focus like Vonn. You have the Canadian snowboarder who withdrew from his Big Air due to a head injury and hopes (and is really just hoping right now) that they can do a different event later on in the Olympics, even though he has more time in between competitions than Vonn would have still..
Do I fault Vonn? No but do I think we have to be all positive or "meh it's how it goes" about it? No she does IMO deserve the heat coming her way like any athlete should be treated when they make decisions such as this.