Lindsey Vonn needs multiple surgeries but insists ACL injury not to blame for crash

Lindsey Vonn has issued her first statement since her catastrophic Olympic crash, revealing that she will require multiple surgeries on her left leg but saying that she has “no regrets” about racing with a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament.

The 41-year-old American had made a successful comeback to World Cup races following a five-year retirement after surgery for a new titanium right knee but then completely severed the left ACL in another crash just nine days before the Olympic downhill final.

She still went for gold, but her race ended after just 13 seconds when she struck a gate near the top of the course in Cortina d’Ampezzo. Vonn was airlifted to hospital in Treviso and has since had two surgeries on her left leg. She described the injury as a “complex tibia fracture” that will require multiple operations to properly fix. Vonn was screaming out in pain as she lay injured on the piste but is happy that she did attempt to regain an Olympic title she first won in 2010.

“It wasn’t a storybook ending or a fairy tale, it was just life,” she said on Instagram. “I dared to dream and had worked so hard to achieve it. 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 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.”

Vonn, whose decision to race has prompted criticism, is adamant that her ruptured ACL did not contribute to her mistake

“My ACL and past injuries had nothing to do with my crash whatsoever,” she said. “In downhill ski racing the difference between a strategic line and a catastrophic injury can be as small as five inches. I was simply five inches too tight on my line when my arm hooked inside the gate. 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 also the beauty of life; we can try.

“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. I tried. I dreamt. I jumped.”

‘She made the choice to ski’

Vonn’s crash started a debate about whether she should have been allowed to compete in the first place, and whether officials should have saved her from herself.

Pierre Ducrey, the International Olympic Committee sports director, said: “I think it’s clear in the downhill we give athletes opportunities to train to make sure they are able to go down the slope in the way it should be for all the athletes.

“That happened, she was able to train and made the choice, with the excellent team that she has, to take part, so from that point of view I don’t think we should say that she should or shouldn’t have participated.

“This decision was really hers and her team’s to take. She made the decision and unfortunately it led to the injury.”

Johan Eliasch, president of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS), backed the belief that Vonn was free to make up her own mind.

He said: “Many people have asked me if FIS should get involved in deciding [if athletes should race] and I firmly believe this has to be decided by the individual athlete.

“In her case, she certainly knows her injuries better than anybody else. If you look around the athletes yesterday, every single athlete has a small injury of some kind.

“What is also important for people to understand is that the accident that she had yesterday, she was incredibly unlucky. It was a one in 1000.”

Mountain falls silent

When Vonn crashed on Sunday, the entire mountain fell eerily silent in shock and fear as the 41-year-old lay waiting for help.

After a 15-minute wait, an emergency helicopter arrived to take one of skiing’s greatest ever competitors to hospital – along with her personal knee doctor. There was a standing ovation from the fans at the bottom of the mountain.

Even many of Vonn’s competitors were upset by what had happened, with BBC commentator and former British downhill star Chemmy Alcott among those clearly distressed. “When we thought about the end of the story I just never thought it would end with her in a clump on the slopes,” Alcott said. “It’s just brutal. I feel guilty. Just think about her family, all of her team.”

Vonn comes to a halt after losing control and crashing out – Reuters

Spectators held their breath as Vonn received treatment – Robert F. Bukaty/AP

Vonn was airlifted off the mountain – Al Bello/Getty Images

Vonn had made the decision to race herself – despite having a titanium right knee and no ACL in her left knee – and had departed down the mountain with the words “keep charging, keep pushing” from her coach in her ear. She was 13th of the starters down Cortina’s Olimpia Delle Tofane; a course on which she has a record number of World Cup wins.

“I think in the end Lindsey risked too much,” said Tina Maze, a double Olympic champion, who was summarising for TNT Sports. “This kind of crash can happen… if you are not healthy, the consequences are even worse.”

International ski federation president Johan Eliasch called it “tragic”, adding that those who criticised the decision to race “don’t know Lindsey”.

The paramedics did not risk putting Vonn on to a stretcher and physically into the helicopter; she was instead wrapped into a stable position and then airlifted while hanging below the helicopter with an emergency paramedic by her side. It was an indication that severe injuries were feared.

The paramedics did not risk physically putting Vonn into the helicopter – Al Bello/Getty Images

There was a wait of more than 20 minutes before the race resumed, with Vonn’s team-mate, American Breezy Johnson, having earlier set the fastest time of the day in rapid conditions down the 2.3km course.

Vonn had completed encouraging training runs down a slope on which speeds touch 80mph on both Friday and Saturday before being passed fit to race with a brace strapped to her knee. But it had been only nine days since she was being airlifted to hospital following a less serious but still nasty fall in Switzerland that ruptured the ACL in her left knee.

Career-ending crash

Sunday’s devastating crash is likely to end one of skiing’s most successful, and dramatic, careers. Described by some as the female Evel Knievel for her willingness to take risks and return from multiple crashes, Vonn’s career has been littered with spectacular victories, serious injuries and headlines off the slopes following a three-year relationship with the golfer Tiger Woods.

She had retired because of injury between 2019 and 2024 before returning with effectively a new right knee and then winning two World Cup races this winter. With multiple previous world titles and three Olympic medals, she had started among the favourites for gold, despite the obvious frailties in her body and the challenge of becoming the oldest ever Olympic downhill champion, some 16 years after her first gold.

Johnson put her hand to her face in stunned sadness when Vonn crashed and, despite knowing that the gold medal was already likely hers, was herself visibly tearful at the manner of victory. “My heart aches for her,” Johnson said of Vonn. “That’s the beauty and the madness of it, that it can hurt you so badly but you keep coming back for more.” It was Johnson’s first Olympic title and followed up her World Championship gold last year.

Eventual winner Breezy Johnson – Vonn’s team-mate – looked upset on the leader’s seat – Annegret Hilse/Reuters

The racing, however, had been completely overshadowed by Vonn’s crash and the debate over whether she should have been permitted to start at all.

Some will argue that her most recent ACL injury was simply too serious to attempt skiing flat out on such a fast and technically challenging course. Others will point to how Vonn’s career and whole mindset have always embodied an all-out “nothing is impossible” mindset. She had even directly replied to a knee doctor on the social media platform X on Friday who questioned how she would be able to control her run while carrying such serious knee damage.

“Lol [lots of laughs], thanks doc,” she wrote. “Just because it seems impossible to you doesn’t mean it’s not possible. And yes, my ACL is 100% ruptured. Not 80% or 50%. It’s 100% gone.”

Vonn had also stressed that the biggest regret would have been not even to try at the end of a career that is among the most celebrated in US sports, not just for the victories but the manner in which she approaches life. She has previously had five knee ligament injuries, multiple leg fractures, as well as the knee replacement surgery on her right leg, and still returned to the very highest level.

The fairy-tale goal had been another Olympic gold medal to add to her eight World Championship medals and 84 World Cup wins. The final outcome was the stuff of nightmares, and yet still more in keeping with a uniquely thrilling career than not starting or tamely finishing among the also-rans.

In a nannyish world, we should applaud Vonn’s spirit

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Lindsey Vonn’s approach to winter sports always puts me in mind of another great aficionado of ice and snow – Sir Ranulph Fiennes – and the mantra he used to chant during his most demanding treks.

“Stick it, stick it, stick it.”

In a sport that requires both resilience and a miraculous ability to block out fear, Vonn earned her 82 World Cup wins and three Olympic medals in blood, bone and sinew. She had her joints reconstructed with the same regularity that most of us visit the dentist.

So while it was horrible to see Vonn’s Olympic career end in a vortex of pain above Cortina D’Ampezzo, this was entirely in keeping with the way she played the game.

Perhaps it is premature to rush to any judgment now, when we do not yet know what price she will pay for her latest gamble. Some will argue that it was irresponsible to race at all, when you consider the state of her knees – one of which is titanium and the other featuring a torn ACL. Could she have been saved from this latest crash by stronger team management? After five years away from the sport, was she herself refusing to face reality?

You could certainly make all these arguments. The BBC’s Chemmy Alcott seemed particularly horrified as she dissolved into tears while on air. At the same time, though, we should acknowledge that this was Vonn’s choice, her way and her right. To borrow a phrase from the Instagram generation, this was her truth.

BBC commentator Chemmy Alcott was in tears – BBC

We hear similar debates every year when the famously lethal Isle of Man TT race comes around, and the conversation begins about whether a modern society should allow riders to risk their bodies – and indeed their lives – for the thrill of the chase.

In a world so nannyish that some restaurants now issue food-storage instructions with every doggy bag, such free-spirited adventurism feels like a throwback. Motorbike riders like Michael Dunlop and Guy Martin could be successors to the SAS Rogue Heroes: men who come alive in the presence of threat.

It might be different if Vonn were part of a team event, and her risk-taking thus had the potential to undermine her colleagues. But skiing is primarily an individual discipline. One of the most individual, you might say, given that every racer must decide how far they push the envelope of possibility.

It is certainly not for everyone. Tennis champion Jannik Sinner was a promising junior skier, once finishing second in a national giant-slalom race for 12-year-olds, but he gave it up because “if you make one mistake, one big mistake, you cannot win”.

For Vonn, by contrast, that sense of ever-present danger is what gives life spice. “I’ve never been afraid,” she said this week. “I’ve always been the kid that climbs the tree. My grandpa always called me a daredevil. That’s why I’m a downhiller. I like risk. I like going fast. I like pushing myself to the limit.”

Hindsight now suggests that Vonn pushed herself too far. Will she regret her decisions? It’s perhaps too early to say. But as long as she recovers without life-limiting consequences, I suspect she will go away satisfied that she was true to herself.