Lindsey Vonn says she has ‘complex tibia fracture’ from Winter Olympics crash

Medics taking care of US athlete Lindsey Vonn as she is transferred by helicopter at the Ca' Foncello Hospital in Treviso, near Venice, after she crashed during the women's alpine skiing downhill event at the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games. Photo / AFP

US ski star Lindsey Vonn said today she had suffered a “complex tibia fracture” when she crashed in the Winter Olympics downhill and would need “multiple surgeries”.

In her first statement since the crash on Sunday in Cortina d’Ampezzo that brutally ended her Olympic comeback, Vonn said: “While yesterday did not end the way I had hoped, and despite the intense physical pain it caused, I have no regrets.”

The 41-year-old insisted that the ruptured anterior cruciate ligament she had sustained in a crash in a World Cup race before the Milan-Cortina Games “had nothing to do with my crash whatsoever”.

“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,” she added on her social media, from the hospital in the Italian city of Treviso where she is being treated.

Vonn crashed heavily just 13 seconds into her run after hitting a gate on the piste, her skis remaining attached to her ski boots as she uncomfortably slid to a halt.

“I sustained a complex tibia fracture that is currently stable but will require multiple surgeries to fix properly,” she said.

She continued: “My Olympic dream did not finish the way I dreamt it would. It wasn’t a story book ending or a fairy tale, 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 gave no indication whether she intends to bring an end to a career that has made her one of the most recognisable faces in world sport.

She has already had two surgeries to stablise the fracture of her left leg, according to reports in Italy.

Vonn won the Olympic downhill at the 2010 Vancouver Games but retired in 2019.

She had resumed her career in late 2024 and was considered a strong favourite for the downhill at these Olympics after recording seven World Cup podium finishes, including two wins, before her pre-Olympics crash in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, where she damaged her ACL.

-Agence France-Presse