Lindsey Vonn requires multiple surgeries after ski crash but has 'no regrets' over competing in Winter Olympics with ACL injury
Lindsey Vonn suffered horrific crash at the Winter Olympics and it has been confirmed she broke her leg; American skier was competing in first event after tearing ACL in accident days before start of the Games; She says she has no regrets over her participation
Tuesday 10 February 2026 08:22, UK
Lindsey Vonn said her ACL and previous injuries had "nothing to do" with her crash in Sunday's downhill race but confirmed she has sustained a complex tibia fracture.
The 41-year-old said in a post on Instagram that she has no regrets of taking part in the Winter Olympics, despite suffering an ACL injury before the tournament and now requiring multiple surgeries.
"While yesterday did not end the way I had hoped, and despite the intense physical pain it caused, I have no regrets," Vonn said.
- Winter Olympics 2026: Key info, GB medal hopes, world stars and more
- Not got Sky? Get Sky Sports or stream contract-free on NOW
- Choose the Sky Sports push notifications you want
Nine days before Sunday's crash, Vonn ruptured the ACL in her left knee. It is an injury that sidelines pro athletes for months, but ski racers have on occasion competed that way. She appeared stable in two downhill training runs at the Milan Cortina Games.
Onlookers on social media wondered if Vonn's ruptured ACL could have played a factor in her crash near the top of the Olympia delle Tofana course just 13 seconds into her run, where she has a World Cup record 12 wins. That maybe, on a healthy left knee, she would not have clipped a gate and been able to stave off a crash.
She was on the ground for around 15 minutes before being airlifted off the course, with spectators cheering her as the helicopter flew over.
"Yesterday my Olympic dream did not finish the way I dreamt it would," Vonn said. "It wasn't a story book ending or a fairy tail, 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.
"I was simply five inches too tight on my line when my right arm hooked inside of the gate, twisting me and resulted in my crash. My ACL and past injuries had nothing to do with my crash whatsoever."
Vonn's father said Monday that the American superstar will no longer race if he has any influence over her decision.
"She's 41 years old and this is the end of her career," Alan Kildow said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press . "There will be no more ski races for Lindsey Vonn, as long as I have anything to say about it."
When she arrived in Cortina last week, Vonn said she had consulted with her team of physicians and trainers before deciding to move ahead with racing. The International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) does not check on the injury statuses of athletes.
"I firmly believe that this has to be decided by the individual athlete," FIS president Johan Eliasch said on Monday in Bormio. "And in her case, she certainly knows her injuries on her body better than anybody else.
"And if you look around here today with all the athletes, the athletes yesterday, every single athlete has a small injury of some kind.
"What is also important for people to understand, that the accident that she had yesterday, she was incredibly unlucky. It was a one in a 1,000," Eliasch added.
"She got too close to the gate, and she got stuck when she was in the air in the gate and started rotating. No one can recover from that, unless you do a 360. … This is something which is part of ski racing. It's a dangerous sport."
