Olympics
One week after her devastating crash at the downhill at the Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Lindsey Vonn shared an update from her hospital bed in Italy: surgery was successful, and she will soon return home to the United States. “Surgery went well today! Thankfully I will be able to finally go back to the US,” Vonn wrote. She added that more details about her injury will come once she is back stateside. But it wasn’t the medical update that stood out—it was her mindset.
Since her crash just 13 seconds into the Olympic downhill, fans around the world have flooded Vonn with messages of heartbreak and sympathy. The American legend shared a video thanking her fans and supporters. However, in her written statement on social media Vonn made it clear: she doesn’t want sadness. “I have been reading a lot of messages and comments saying that what has happened to me makes them sad. Please, don’t be sad,” she wrote. “Empathy, love and support I welcome with an open heart, but please not sadness or sympathy.”
Instead, Vonn hopes her fall inspires strength. “I hope instead it gives you strength to keep fighting, because that is what I am doing and that is what I will continue to do. Always.”
Vonn’s Olympic dream ended violently on the Cortina downhill track when a gate caught her hand on a roller, throwing her off balance and launching her into a brutal crash. Vonn suffered a complex fracture to her left leg, which after a third surgery was secured with an external bracket to hold the bones into place. There were some critics who claimed that her ACL rupture the week before contributed to the crash, but Vonn will have none of that and is coming out of the incident with no regrets. “When I think back on my crash, I didn’t stand in the starting gate unaware of the potential consequences. I knew what I was doing. I chose to take a risk. Every skier in that starting gate took the same risk. Because even if you are the strongest person in the world, the mountain always holds the cards.”
To those who know her, it was clear that Vonn had gone into this race knowing the risk and accepting them. She has an expert team of advisers, coaches and medical team around her, and Vonn was confident she was in the best shape to race after close consultation with her team. At 41, Vonn insists she was physically stronger in that moment than she had been in years—stronger, she says, than when she won bronze at the 2019 World Championships to close out her previous career chapter. “And mentally… mentally I was perfect. Clear, focused, hungry, aggressive yet completely calm.”
She pointed to her dominant form earlier this season—two downhill wins and leading the standings—as proof she was building toward this Olympic moment. But readiness doesn’t equal guarantees. “Nothing in life is guaranteed. That’s the gamble of chasing your dreams, you might fall but if you don’t try you’ll never know.” For Vonn, the alternative—holding back—was never an option. “I will always take the risk of crashing while giving it my all, rather than not ski to my potential and have regret. I never want to cross the finish line and say, ‘what if?’”
Despite the pain, despite another major knee injury, despite hearing her cries echo across live television as she was airlifted off the course—Vonn says she has no regrets. “The ride was worth the fall.” And perhaps most telling of all, the legendary skier adds, “I am still looking forward to the moment when I can stand on the top of the mountain once more. And I will.”
For anyone who has followed Lindsey Vonn’s career, one thing is certain: betting against her comeback has never been wise.
