Lindsey Vonn Breaks Silence On Scary Olympics Crash With Defiant Message

2010 Olympic gold medalist and Team USA legend Lindsey Vonn was one of the biggest stories heading into the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics because she decided to compete despite suffering a full tear of her ACL a short time before the Olympics began.

This set the stage for a Cinderella story for the 41-year-old. However, this story ended in tragedy when Vonn had a gruesome crash just 13 seconds into her run in the women's downhill race.

Lindsey Vonn of the United States | Leonhard Foeger/Reuters via Imagn Images

Vonn had to be airlifted out after the scary injury, and it came out later that she fractured her left leg.

Lindsey Vonn Sends Powerful Message After Crash, Fractured Leg

Vonn took to social media on February 9 to break silence on her injury with a meaningful message.

"Yesterday my Olympic dream did not finish the way I dreamt it would. 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," VOnn's post wrote.

"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. My ACL and past injuries had nothing to do with my crash whatsoever."

BREAKING: 🇺🇸 Lindsey Vonn suffers catastrophic crash during #Olympics downhill run. She would be airlifted to a helicopter 🚁 after 10 minutes on the course. pic.twitter.com/Txkx8dWA9l
— Bill Speros (@billsperos) February 8, 2026

"Unfortunately, I sustained a complex tibia fracture that is currently stable but will require multiple surgeries to fix properly," Vonn continued.

"While yesterday did not end the way I had hoped, and despite the intense physical pain it caused, I have no regrets. Standing in the starting gate yesterday was an incredible feeling that I will never forget. Knowing I stood there having a chance to win was a victory in and of itself. I also knew that racing was a risk. It always was and always will be an incredibly dangerous sport."

"And similar to ski racing, we take risks in life. We dream. We love. We jump. And sometimes we fall. Sometimes our hearts are broken. Sometimes we don’t achieve the dreams we know we could have. But that is the also the beauty of life; we can try," she added.

"I tried. I dreamt. I jumped. I hope if you take away anything from my journey it’s that you all have the courage to dare greatly. Life is too short not to take chances on yourself. Because the only failure in life is not trying. I believe in you, just as you believed in me," Vonn's post concluded.

Vonn inspired not just other athletes, but everybody who watched her compete across her legendary career.

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