The Milano Cortina Olympics were supposed to be Lindsey Vonn’s big comeback. Lindsey, who has one gold and two bronze Olympic medals in skiing, was forced to retire from competitive skiing in 2019 as a result of a series of injuries to her right knee. In April 2024, however, she had a partial knee replacement and felt well enough to start training again. Two weeks ago, Lindsey tore her left ACL during a crash in the Swiss Alps, but was still able to compete.
The story had all of the makings of a movie-worthy comeback. Sadly, Lindsey’s big moment was cut short on Sunday after she hooked a gate and crashed 13 seconds into her first event, the women’s downhill. After being treated on the course for more than 10 minutes, she had to be airlifted out. On Monday, Lindsey posted an update to her Instagram page, saying that she’d suffered a complex tibia fracture to her left leg that will require several surgeries to fix. She also stressed that the previous ACL injury had nothing to do with the crash.
Lindsey Vonn has a complex fracture in her tibia that will require multiple surgeries.
Vonn made her first comments since her horrific crash in the Olympic downhill on Sunday, Feb. 8, saying in an Instagram post that she knew the risks involved.
“While yesterday did not end the way I had hoped, and despite the intense physical pain it caused, I have no regrets,” Vonn said. “Standing in the starting gate yesterday was an incredible feeling that I will never forget. Knowing I stood there having a chance to win was a victory in and of itself.
“I also knew that racing was a risk. It always was and always will be an incredibly dangerous sport.”
Vonn made clear that her torn ACL had nothing to do with the crash. She injured her left knee – she also had bone bruising and meniscus damage – in another crash on Jan. 30 in the final downhill before the Milano Cortina Olympics.
Skiing with a torn ACL is not unheard of, and Vonn said her knee was stable and strong. She did intensive rehab between the crash and the Olympics, as well as pool workouts and plyometrics. She completed two training runs without issue, including posting the third-fastest time in the second one.
“In downhill ski racing the difference between a strategic line and a catastrophic injury can be as small as 5 inches. I was simply 5 inches too tight on my line when my right arm hooked inside of the gate, twisting me and resulted in my crash,” Vonn wrote. “My ACL and past injuries had nothing to do with my crash whatsoever.”
Vonn hooked her arm around the fourth gate on the Olimpia delle Tofane course, which spun her around and flung her into the hard, snow-covered surface. She then tumbled end over end several times before coming to a stop.
Vonn was treated on the hill for roughly 13 minutes before being loaded into a helicopter and, five minutes later, airlifted to a local hospital. After an assessment there, she was transferred to Ca’Foncello Hospital in Treviso, about two hours away. She underwent surgery later that day, and both the hospital and U.S. Skiing said she was in stable condition.
“Similar to ski racing, we take risks in life. We dream. We love. We jump. And sometimes we fall. Sometimes our hearts are broken. Sometimes we don’t achieve the dreams we know we could have. But that is the also the beauty of life; we can try,” Vonn wrote in her Instagram post.
“I tried. I dreamt. I jumped,” she said. “I hope if you take away anything from my journey it’s that you all have the courage to dare greatly. Life is too short not to take chances on yourself. Because the only failure in life is not trying.”
Lindsey’s fall was scary. I didn’t see it happen live, but I watched the video replay on Sunday morning. It was evident right away that she was seriously injured, even before the medical team got out there. The tibia is your shin bone, and I can only imagine how much pain she was and is still in. I didn’t realize this until I read reports after her crash that Cortina is actually where Lindsey made her first World Cup podium in 2004, when she won the bronze. I was really rooting for her to pull it off! I feel terrible for her, and hope that she’s able to make a full recovery without any additional chronic pain.
Photos credit: Francesca Vieceli/IPA/INSTARimages, Backgrid, IMAGO/Revierfoto/Avalon
Wish her the best in her recovery. Broken bones are no fun.
I feel bad for Lindsey and I hope she can get through this and make a full recovery. She’s a true competitor and an Olympian champion and I respect that she has the passion for her sport.
I watched the race and while they were treating her on the slope and trying to get her skis off you could hear her screaming in pain.
I’m so glad she got out there and did what she wanted to do, I was genuinely excited when I heard she was competing in these games and I wish her a successful recovery.
I’m not a big risk taker or adrenaline junkie so maybe I just don’t get it but it seems ludicrous to be racing on a torn ACL and knee replacement. Is that really a situation where she could have come out unscathed? And I don’t believe for one second the ACL has nothing to do with the broken leg. I’m not a doctor but your body naturally compensates when you have an injury. I feel like she’s just saying that so people don’t say she shouldn’t have competed.
I can’t imagine what kind of pain she’ll be in now for the rest of her life (potentially). It just doesn’t seem worth it to me.
My daughter is a physical therapist and she told me that you can function well without an ACL if you are strong enough.
Lindsey was too close to the gate and the fall was caused by her arm getting hung up.
Personally, I stopped skiing after my hip replacements, but I know many people with hip, knee, shoulder replacements who ski and compete, not at an Olympic level though!
That’s good to know! The human body is amazing!!
Can’t speak about the knee replacement but have had experience with a torn ACL (ultimately discovered to have been completely ruptured). Injured it in my 20’s the second time I tried downhill skiing (binding didn’t release). Knee seemed to be functioning fine afterwards and I didn’t think more about it. Always had strong legs but had never been a runner or anything consistent like that. Wasn’t until about 20 years later that I suspected a problem was brewing and ultimately had surgery. In the meantime, took up crew (no previous college experience) and rowed for 8 years, including competitions.
Also agree that Lindsay was too close to the gate and caught her arm. She was very familiar with that course; suspect she was slightly overconfident about how close a line she could take, and made a mistake.
That particular gate on the course has been problematic for other expert skiers in these Olympics but also in prior competitions. But also, skiing is high risk for injury. Vonn was not the only skier who crashed in the race. One walked away, but another injured skier (age 26 whose knee apparently buckled in a jump after the chute section of the race) was airlifted out, same as Vonn. She suffered torn ligaments in her knee and thumb.
Vonn knows the course extremely well, and I tend to trust her assessment that she simply cut it too close and caught her arm.
I watched it live and screamed, “oh f–k!” You don’t have to be a skier to know immediately that it was bad, but if you are one, you could almost feel that fall yourself.
Lindsey has been my favorite skier since her first season, and I had the chance to meet her at Killington when I was 14. It was my first time skiing after my first ACL reconstruction, and she noticed my brace and told me not to let injuries stop me. Met her again a few years later and she remembered me, and asked how my recovery went. I told her I’d had another reconstruction since and she laughed and said, “I never learn either!” and told me I was a badass. No girl, YOU are a badass. My God.
That’s a lovely story!!
I feel like my original post above sounded so cold. I do feel really terrible for her and hope she is able to recover quickly. I guess it just didn’t seem worth the risk IMO with the injuries she already had.
She’s tough and is always ready to compete. Obviously loves her sport. Get well soon.
There’s almost zero chance she doesn’t have lifelong issues because of this injury. This is a serious injury.
Should she have competed? Even if the ACL had nothing to do with this crash, it could’ve caused another, so I personally don’t think it was a good idea. But Lindsay is a grown woman allowed to make stupid choices.