CORTINA d’AMPEZZO, Italy — 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 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.’
Vonn is among the greatest skiers of all-time, a three-time Olympic medalist whose 84 World Cup wins are behind only Mikaela Shiffrin and Ingemar Stenmark. Vonn was forced to retire in 2019 because of the physical pain from a series of injuries to her right knee.
But after having a partial knee replacement in April 2024, Vonn felt so good she began contemplating a comeback.
‘I retired in 2019 because my body said no more, not because I didn’t want to continue racing,” Vonn told USA TODAY Sports in October. “So I feel like this could be an incredible moment to end this chapter of my life and move forward in a really exciting and peaceful way.”
Cortina was a big part of that.
Cortina has always been one of Vonn’s favorite places. She made her first World Cup podium there, winning a bronze medal in the downhill in 2004, and 12 of her 84 World Cup victories came there. To ski in an Olympics there, maybe have those be her final races, seemed a fitting end.
“It’s such a special place for me,” Vonn said in October. “I don’t think I would have tried this comeback if the Olympics weren’t in Corina. If it had been anywhere else, I would probably say it’s not worth it.
“But for me, there’s something special about Corina that always pulls me back.”
Vonn had mixed results after she returned to the World Cup circuit in 2024, but she finished the season with a silver medal in the super-G at the World Cup finals in Sun Valley, Idaho. After a full off-season to train and fine-tune her equipment, the 41-year-old Vonn was unstoppable.
She won the season’s first downhill, in St. Moritz, and another in Zauchensee. She was on the podium in all five downhill races, and two of the first three super-Gs.
Vonn led the downhill standings, putting her in position to join Mikaela Shiffrin as the only skiers to win nine season titles in a single discipline. Vonn also was second in the super-G standings and sixth in the overall.
What is a complex tibia fracture?
A tibia fracture is a break in the shin bone that is an emergency needing immediate treatment. ‘Your tibias are some of the strongest bones in your body. It usually takes a lot of force to break one,’ according to the Cleveland Clinic. ‘You probably won’t be able to stand, walk or put weight on your leg if you have a broken shin bone.’
A complex fracture involves multiple breaks in a bone and damaged soft tissue, according Yale Medicine. Symptoms include extreme pain, numbness and, sometimes, a bone that protrudes through the skin. Treatment involves stabilization and surgery.
