United States skier Lindsey Vonn provided a lengthy update after her crash during the alpine ski women’s downhill at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics resulted in a leg fracture on Sunday.
Vonn, 41, was already skiing with a torn ACL, but she needed to be airlifted off the mountain in a scary scene. She posted on her Instagram on Monday, saying her “Olympic dream did not finish the way I dreamt it would.”
“It wasn’t a storybook ending or a fairy (tale), it was just life,” her detailed caption read. 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.”
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“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. My ACL and past injuries had nothing to do with my crash whatsoever.”
Officials at an Italian hospital where Vonn was brought to quickly after the crash said she underwent surgery to “stabilize a fracture reported in her left leg.”
Vonn revealed she suffered a “complex tibia fracture that is currently stable but will require multiple surgeries to fix properly.”
LINDSEY VONN UNDERGOES SURGERY FOR LEG FRACTURE AFTER HARD CRASH DURING OLYMPIC RUN
Before the Games began, many wondered how Vonn would ski on her ruptured ACL, but she was determined to attempt to medal in her signature event. Her runs on Friday and Saturday went fine, but she lost control a few seconds into her Sunday run, and things got very serious afterward.
However, Vonn, 41, doesn’t have any regrets.
“While yesterday did not end the way I had hoped, and despite the intense physical pain it caused, I have no regrets. Standing in the starting gate yesterday was an incredible feeling that I will never forget,” her caption continued. “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.
“And 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.
“I tried. I dreamt. I jumped.”
To conclude, Vonn believes that her “journey” can provide some inspiration to those in all areas of life.
“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,” she wrote.
“I believe in you, just as you believed in me.”
As competitors and fans alike were relieved to hear Vonn was in stable condition, fellow American Breezy Johnson secured the gold medal in the vent, marking the United States’ first victory at the Milan Cortina Games.
“I don’t claim to know what she’s going through, but I do know what it is to be here, to be fighting for the Olympics, and to have this course burn you and to watch those dreams die,” said Johnson, who missed out on the 2022 Games due to a knee injury. “I can’t imagine the pain that she’s going through and it’s not the physical pain — we can deal with physical pain — but the emotional pain is something else.”
International Ski and Snowboard Federation president Johan Eliasch called Vonn’s crash “tragic, but it’s ski racing.”
“I can only say thank you for what she has done for our sport,” he said, “because this race has been the talk of the games and it’s put our sport in the best possible light.”
The Associated Press and Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.
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