Picture: Stefano RELLANDINI/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
After rallying by way of knee surgical procedure and a ruptured ACL, Lindsey Vonn’s desires of an Olympic comeback got here to a heartbreaking finish on Sunday when the 41-year-old crashed seconds into the downhill occasion, her first outing on the 2026 Winter Olympics in Cortina. Per the Related Press, Vonn was airlifted off the mountain to a neighborhood clinic and transferred two hours south to the Ca’ Foncello hospital in Treviso the place she had surgical procedure to restore her damaged left leg. The U.S. Ski Staff instructed the outlet that Vonn is now “in steady situation and in good palms with a group of American and Italian physicians.”
A #WinterOlympics legend, all the time. 🤍
Lindsey Vonn’s legacy is without end a part of Staff USA. pic.twitter.com/kmDUyqFqvB
— Staff USA (@TeamUSA) February 8, 2026
“She’ll be okay, nevertheless it’s going to be a little bit of a course of,” Anouk Patty, chief of sport for U.S. Ski and Snowboard, added. “This sport’s brutal, and other people want to recollect once they’re watching these athletes are throwing themselves down a mountain and going actually, actually quick.”
Vonn’s crash marks the top of what many thought can be a historic Olympic run. After sustaining a number of knee accidents in the course of the World Championships in Åre, Sweden, Vonn retired in 2019. However in 2024, the gold medalist determined she wasn’t completed but: She underwent knee-replacement surgical procedure that April and went on to qualify for the 2026 Winter Olympics. Only a week earlier than the video games started, Vonn suffered a crash that “fully” ruptured her ACL. Regardless of the setback, she decided she was “able to competing,” as she wrote on Instagram.
Forward of the race, Vonn wrote in an Instagram put up that she “can’t assure end result,” including, “However it doesn’t matter what occurs, I’ve already gained.”
“The outpouring of affection and help over the previous few days has been overwhelming in one of the simplest ways,” she went on. “It has given me vitality and helped me greater than I can describe. Thanks.”
“Tragic. Nevertheless it’s ski racing, I’m afraid,” Johan Eliasch, the president of the Worldwide Ski and Snowboard Federation instructed the pool on the post-medal ceremony press convention in Milan on Sunday. “I can solely say ‘thanks’ for what she has completed for our sport, as a result of this race has been the speak of the Video games and it’s put our sport in the very best gentle. I hope she could have a speedy restoration and be again on skis very quickly.”
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