American skier Lindsey Vonn suffered a complex tibia fracture during the women's downhill at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, just 13 seconds into her run on the Olympia delle Tofana course in Cortina, Italy. The 41-year-old, who had returned from retirement in late 2024, was airlifted by helicopter to a hospital in Treviso for treatment and multiple surgeries. Vonn defended her decision to compete despite a recent ACL rupture in her left knee from a prior World Cup race.
Lindsey Vonn's Olympic campaign ended abruptly on Sunday when she crashed heavily during the women's downhill event at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. The American skier, aged 41, had resumed competing in late 2024 after nearly six years away and entered the race as a strong favorite, having secured seven World Cup podium finishes, including two wins, prior to the Games. However, a pre-Olympics crash in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, had ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee, though Vonn insisted this played no role in her Olympic fall. '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 explained in a social media post from her hospital bed in Treviso, Italy. Vonn described the injury as a 'complex tibia fracture that is currently stable but will require multiple surgeries to fix properly.' Reflecting on the incident, she stated, 'While yesterday did not end the way I had hoped, and despite the intense physical pain it caused, I have no regrets.' She added, '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.' The crash prompted a swift helicopter evacuation, the second for Vonn in nine days, directed by rescue specialist Nicola Cherubin. He was lowered from the helicopter to secure Vonn on a stretcher and accompanied her during the flight to the hospital. Such airlifts are standard in alpine ski racing under International Ski and Snowboard Federation rules, which mandate helicopters or equivalent evacuation methods for downhill and super-G events to ensure rapid medical response. Vonn underwent immediate surgery for the broken leg, and while she expressed no regrets about competing, the injury raises questions about the future of her career.
