Hours after her inspiring 2026 Olympics story came to a harrowing end, Lindsey Vonn quickly went under the knife at a hospital.
After crashing 13 seconds into the women’s downhill race and being airlifted off the course on Sunday morning, the three-time Olympic medalist was taken to a clinic in Cortina, Italy and was later transferred to a bigger hospital in Treviso, where surgery was performed on her left leg.
The 41-year-old was tended to by a “multidisciplinary team” and “underwent an orthopedic operation to stabilize a fracture reported in her left leg,” as the Ca’ Foncello hospital said in a statement.
The U.S. Ski & Snowboard Team said in an earlier statement that Vonn was in “stable condition” in the hands of a team of American and Italian physicians.
Vonn was in the start gate on Sunday without an ACL in her left knee, which she ruptured during a tune-up race in Switzerland just nine days earlier. After coming out of retirement when she was forced to do so in 2019 due to injury, Vonn didn’t see any reason to turn back when so close to the Olympic race.
She looked poised to do well, putting down the third-best time in the final practice run on Saturday.
However, the crash wasn’t a result of her bum knee.
When going around a gate, Vonn’s right arm clipped the gate, twisting her body in the air and causing the crash. The three-time Olympic medalist was on the ground surrounded my a medical team for about 20 minutes before she was airlifted and the race resumed.
It brought her storybook comeback and fifth Games to a heartbreaking end.
“That was definitely the last thing we wanted to see. It happened quick…” Vonn’s sister Karin Kildow said to NBC while the decorated U.S. skier was being tended to on the course. “She just dared greatly. She put it all out there. It’s really hard to see but we hope she is okay.”
“I know she put her whole heart into it and sometimes things just happen. It’s a very dangerous sport,” she added.
American Breezy Johnson, 30, went on to win the gold medal with a time of 1:36.10 after being the sixth racer to go down the course. Germany’s Emma Aicher (1:36.14) and Italy’s Sofia Goggia (1:36.69) followed to round out the podium while American Jackie Wiles narrowly missed it for a fourth place time of 1:36.96.
Johnson’s medal is Team USA’s first of the 2026 Olympics, and it makes her the second American woman behind Vonn to win an Olympic gold in the women’s downhill.
