Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy – Five-time Olympian Lindsey Vonn revealed a harrowing near-loss of her left leg following a crash during the women’s downhill event at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, detailing the extent of her injuries and the subsequent surgeries in a Monday Instagram post. The 41-year-old American skier, who had already been competing with a torn ACL sustained in a World Cup race in Switzerland on January 30, crashed approximately 13 seconds into her run on February 8.
Vonn’s injuries proved far more complex than initially reported, encompassing a complex tibia fracture, a fibular head fracture, a tibial plateau fracture, and compartment syndrome, a condition where excessive pressure builds up within muscles, restricting blood flow. “Dr. Tom Hackett saved my leg. He saved my leg from being amputated,” Vonn explained in the video, crediting her longtime orthopedic surgeon with performing a fasciotomy – a procedure involving cutting open the leg to relieve pressure – that averted amputation.
The decorated skier underwent a six-hour surgery, including the fasciotomy, shortly after being airlifted from the course to an Italian hospital. She subsequently returned to the United States and underwent further surgery, lasting more than six hours, after arriving in Colorado. Vonn is currently in a wheelchair and anticipates needing crutches for approximately two months.
“Now I will focus on rehab and progressing from a wheelchair to crutches in a few weeks,” Vonn wrote in her Instagram post. She estimates a year-long recovery period for the bone fractures, after which she will consider whether to remove the metal hardware used in the surgeries and potentially undergo another procedure to repair her ACL.
The revelation of the severity of Vonn’s injuries came after she acknowledged a significant mental challenge in her recovery. In an X post Tuesday, Vonn described a “battle of the mind” that she characterized as “dark and hard and unrelenting.” “Today was a hard day… my physical battle began the second I got hurt but the mental battle started today. It hit me like a ton of bricks,” she wrote. She acknowledged the cyclical nature of mental challenges following injuries, stating, “Each one has made me a better and stronger person in different ways… but the battle of the mind can be dark and hard and unrelenting.”
Vonn shared a photo of her dog accompanying her in bed, captioning it with a quote from her pet: “Why are you crying Mom?” she wrote. “It was just a hard day…”
Vonn spent nearly two weeks hospitalized in Milan before being transferred to a hospital in Colorado. She remains focused on her rehabilitation, with a long road to recovery ahead.
