Skiing icon Lindsey Vonn has spoken out for the first time following her terrifying crash during the women’s downhill at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
The 41-year-old Olympic veteran suffered a complex broken leg just 13 seconds into her run, ending her Olympic dreams in a flash of snow and screams.
But new details reveal that the crash may not have been entirely unpredictable.
Norwegian ski legend and two-time Olympic gold medalist Aksel Lund Svindal, who has coached Vonn since 2025, reportedly noticed something concerning during training last week. The coach observed that Vonn was leaning more heavily on her right knee during landings to ease the strain on her injured left knee, according to the Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad.
That slight imbalance may have been the tipping point for the catastrophic crash, and it played out exactly as feared during her fateful turn. The veteran skier barreled over a hill before smashing into one of the plastic course markers, sending her tumbling violently to the snow.
Her right leg struck first, sending a cloud of powder into the air, before she flipped forward again, seemingly slamming her shoulder into the slope, finally coming to a stop in a heart-stopping moment that left spectators frozen in shock.
Premonition-like insight
Vonn’s own explanation confirmed the grim precision of what happened:
“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.”
The premonition-like insight from Svindal highlighted the razor-thin margins in downhill ski racing. “Because in Downhill ski racing, the difference between a strategic line and a catastrophic injury can be as small as 5 inches,” Vonn added
The crash left the Cortina crowd stunned, with other competitors pausing their runs and removing skis as Vonn was airlifted to a nearby hospital. The American star now faces multiple surgeries to repair a complex tibia fracture, but her spirit remains unbroken.
Medical supervisor raises concerns
Wouter Van den Broecke, medical supervisor for the International Ski Federation (FIS) at the Winter Games, told Het Nieuwsblad that the course on Sunday was extremely demanding.
“I spoke with the Italian team doctor. The descent on Sunday was very challenging, he told me, bordering on too difficult, especially because the snow conditions weren’t great.
We don’t have any clarity about her exact injury (prior to the crash). But if it is indeed a ‘classic’ complete cruciate ligament tear, she must have always had additional injuries: the sudden impact causes microfractures, often on the outside of the knee. This causes the bone marrow to swell, a condition called bone edema.
You can’t numb that. She may be fit and strong, and strapped in a brace, but you can’t stop the shock. You could clearly see that Vonn couldn’t handle the pressure and ‘flew away’ as a result.”
Van den Broecke also criticized the decision to let Vonn race, saying it went against medical standards:
“This crash was an accident waiting to happen. On the one hand, there’s the world star, a fantastic woman who, at 41, is trying to return to the Olympics after countless sacrifices. On the other hand, this is a particularly bad example for young people when it comes to health and safety.”
Showed grace
Even in the face of tragedy, Vonn showed grace, congratulating her teammate Breezy Johnson, who went on to win gold, before leaving the slope.
“True character is revealed in difficult moments,” Svindal wrote on social media, praising Vonn for thinking of her team even while being rushed to the hospital.
Fellow skiers defended Vonn’s decision to race despite her injuries. Keely Cashman explained,
“People that don’t know ski racing don’t really understand what happened yesterday… She hooked her arm on the gate, which twisted her around. She was going probably 70mph, and so that twists your body around.”
Italy’s two-time world champion Federica Brignone added,
“It’s your body, then you decide what to do, whether to race or not. It’s not up to others. Only you.”
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