Lindsey Vonn says she suffered ‘complex tibia fracture’ in her Olympic downhill crash

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — The 41-year-old Crew USA star Lindsey Vonn suffered a “complicated tibia fracture” when she crashed within the Olympic downhill race on Sunday, the skier mentioned on Instagram in her first public assertion because the race.

Vonn was airlifted by helicopter from the course Sunday and transported to a hospital in Treviso, some two hours from Cortina, to obtain preliminary remedy to stabilize the fracture in her left leg, the hospital advised NPR. A number of further surgical procedures will likely be wanted to “repair [her leg] correctly,” Vonn mentioned.

“In Downhill ski racing the distinction between a strategic line and a catastrophic harm could be as small as 5 inches,” she wrote, posting late Monday night time native time in Italy, about 35 hours after her crash. “Whereas yesterday didn’t finish the best way I had hoped, and regardless of the extreme bodily ache it prompted, I’ve no regrets.”

Vonn didn’t say whether or not she would retire from snowboarding upon restoration.

She was competing within the Olympic race on Sunday regardless of a tear to her left anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, suffered simply eight days earlier than the race.

Her crash got here simply 13 seconds into the race. As she handed via a race gate, her proper arm caught on the gate and spun her into the air. She landed exhausting on the snow and bounced down the slope earlier than coming to a relaxation on her again. As medical crews rushed to her assist, she may very well be heard screaming in ache.

On Monday, she mentioned the ACL tear had not contributed to her crash. “I used to be merely 5 inches too tight on my line when my proper arm hooked inside the gate, twisting me and resulted in my crash,” she wrote. “My ACL and previous accidents had nothing to do with my crash in anyway.”

Vonn initially retired from ski racing in 2019 after a sequence of accidents to her knees left her satisfied she was unable to soundly proceed to compete.

However a partial knee alternative that positioned a titanium implant into her proper knee in 2024 allowed her to start coaching once more in earnest. Remarkably, she returned swiftly to the highest of the World Cup downhill standings. This winter, she had received two World Cup races and reached the rostrum in 5 others earlier than she tore her ACL.

The audacity and dedication of her determination to compete within the Olympics regardless of her torn ACL had riveted onlookers, each skeptics and believers alike. Within the days earlier than the race, Vonn efficiently accomplished two coaching runs on Cortina’s Olimpia delle Tofane course, turning the race into essentially the most anticipated occasion of the Olympics.

“Standing within the beginning gate yesterday was an unimaginable feeling that I’ll always remember. Understanding I stood there having an opportunity to win was a victory in and of itself,” she mentioned.

NPR’s Ruth Sherlock contributed reporting