Despite undergoing surgery for a fractured left leg, ski icon Lindsey Vonn defended her decision to compete at Games.
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Published On 10 Feb 2026
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American ski athlete Lindsey Vonn said on Monday she had suffered a “complex tibia fracture” when she crashed in the Winter Olympics downhill and would need “multiple surgeries”.
“While yesterday did not end the way I had hoped, and despite the intense physical pain it caused, I have no regrets,” Vonn said on her social media, from the hospital in Italy where she is being treated.
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Vonn, 41, insisted that the ruptured anterior cruciate ligament she suffered in a crash in a World Cup race before the Milan-Cortina Games “had nothing to do with my crash whatsoever”.
“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,” she added.
“I sustained a complex tibia fracture that is currently stable but will require multiple surgeries to fix properly.”
In her first statement since the crash, Vonn said: “My Olympic dream did not finish the way I dreamt it would. It wasn’t a story book ending or a fairy tale, it was just life. I dared to dream and had worked so hard to achieve it.
“Because in Downhill ski racing the difference between a strategic line and a catastrophic injury can be as small as 5 inches.”
Vonn crashed heavily just 13 seconds after starting her run. She was winched off the piste by a rescue helicopter and is being treated in a hospital in Treviso.
She had resumed her career in late 2024 after nearly six years in retirement and was considered a strong favourite for the downhill at these Olympics after recording seven World Cup podium finishes, including two wins, before her pre-Olympics crash in Crans-Montana, Switzerland.
Vonn’s crash during the Olympic Women’s Downhill on Sunday is likely to be career-ending for the American Alpine ski athlete [Screengrab by IOC via Getty Images]
