NEW YORK — For nine days last winter, debate swirled over whether Lindsey Vonn should race in the Winter Olympics on a freshly torn ACL. At 41, Vonn had engineered a remarkable comeback from retirement and partial knee replacement, returning to the World Cup podium and leading the downhill standings. Her aim was to end on top at Cortina d’Ampezzo, the slope where she’d won many World Cup races.
What happened instead was a devastating crash 13 seconds into the Olympic downhill. Television viewers heard Vonn’s cries as medics tended her on the snow and a helicopter carried her away. The injury proved to be the worst of her career: a complex tibial fracture in her left leg with cracks in the fibular head and tibial plateau, plus a broken right ankle. She developed compartment syndrome and required an emergency fasciotomy to relieve dangerous pressure in her leg — a procedure she believes likely saved her from amputation.
Vonn spent days in an Italian hospital, weeks in a wheelchair, and now still walks with crutches. After multiple surgeries in Italy, she was medically evacuated to the U.S., where surgeons performed a six-hour operation in Colorado. Her recovery will stretch at least a year and include planned surgeries to remove metal from her left leg and later to address the torn ACL.
She acknowledged to NPR that she wishes parts of the process had gone differently, but she expressed no regrets. “My crashes, my obstacles, everything that I face in my life has always made me a better person,” she said. “This is where I am. I’m lucky. I’m happy. And I’m always going to do the best I can no matter what.”
Vonn’s return to elite skiing after retiring in 2019 had silenced many skeptics. The Hall of Famer — the first American woman to win Olympic gold in downhill and long the winningest skier in history — captured two World Cup victories and several podiums after coming out of retirement. Then, less than a week before the Games, she crashed in a World Cup race in Switzerland and learned she’d torn her ACL. She initially told fans on Instagram the ACL tear “had nothing to do with my crash whatsoever,” though in conversation with NPR she later acknowledged the injury affected her race strategy. The instability forced her to ski differently, pushing harder in places to make up time where the knee limited her.
Outside reaction to her decision to race ranged from admiration to condemnation. Critics on TV and social media called the move dangerous or a publicity stunt; some suggested she was taking another athlete’s chance (under Olympic rules, Vonn and three other Americans had already earned the qualifying spots). None of that deterred her. On race morning, surrounded by thousands of fans at the Tofane Ski Center, she felt emotional and grateful to be there. Thirteen seconds later, the dream ended.
The physical damage was only part of the toll. The early recovery was humbling for someone used to independence. “The amount of time in a wheelchair and just being unable to do really anything without someone taking care of me — I’m a very independent person, and I don’t want to burden anybody. And I felt like I was a constant burden,” she said.
But Vonn has never been one to withdraw. From her hospital bed in Italy onward, she documented much of her recovery on social media, sharing photos and videos of surgeries and hours of physical therapy. She said posting was therapeutic and helped her feel connected while isolated. “I’ve always been a really open person. I’m not someone that hides who I am. Like, this is me with makeup, without makeup, healthy, not healthy — whatever it is, this is me,” she said.
As she began to reenter public life, Vonn took a Vanity Fair photo shoot — “It was the first time I felt more [like] me,” she said — and traveled to New York for an educational campaign called Antibodies for Any Body for the pharmaceutical company Invivyd, a partnership she’d signed before her injuries and didn’t cancel.
Her planned medical timetable includes another surgery this fall to remove hardware from her left leg and further operations later to repair the ACL. She faces countless hours of rehabilitation, and while she did not rule out returning to the slopes — even if just for closure and to say goodbye to teammates she never saw after being flown away from Cortina — she is realistic it could be a long road.
Vonn reflected on the sport and the risks that come with skiing the downhill at top speed. She noted that injury has been a theme throughout her career, including a 2018 crash that damaged ligaments and meniscus and contributed to her initial retirement. But this recent crash was the most extreme, and its repercussions remain significant. Still, her public outlook is one of resilience. “I was shocked. But also, like, I didn’t miss a beat,” she said about learning of the ACL tear before the Olympics. “I was not sad. I wasn’t angry. I was just like, okay, this is what we have.”
She also acknowledged how the injury shaped her final race: she adapted her approach, trying to calculate where she could push and where the torn knee would force her to compromise. In the end, the mistake that clipped a gate and sent her tumbling changed everything.
Vonn said she feels lucky, and she plans to continue sharing her story as she heals. “Since I’m not one to hide my story, I’m sure I’ll tell you on Instagram,” she said with a smile. For now, she’s focused on recovery: more surgeries, rehab, and the slow work of getting back to everyday independence — and, possibly someday, to the mountain where she meant to finish on her own terms.