Lindsey Vonn Faces An “Internal Mental Battle” Post-Olympics Crash

For weeks leading up to the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics, Lindsey Vonn’s incredible comeback at age 41 was a feel-good story. However, days before the Winter Games’ opening ceremony on Feb. 6, the alpine skiing legend announced she had badly injured her left knee in a crash, tearing her ACL. She still decided to compete, but she had a horrific accident during the downhill event on Feb. 8, leading what she’s since shared is a grueling road to recovery, both mentally and physically.

Hard Days

Vonn’s crash in Cortina caused such extensive injury to her left leg that she has credited her surgeon, Dr. Tom Hackett, with saving her leg. It took almost three weeks of recovery in Italy before she was able to fly back to the United States. After returning home and reuniting with her dog Chance, Vonn opened up about her “internal mental battle” on Instagram on Feb. 25.

“Had a pretty hard day yesterday, everything just really hit me hard and I broke down,” she wrote, in part, alongside a video of her emotional reunion with Chance. “I know there will be a lot of days like this… the internal mental battle has just begun but moments like this help me so much.”

Vonn noted that she’s taking her recovery “one day at a time” and missing her other dog, Leo. He sadly died of cancer a day after her crash at the Olympics.

Lindsey’s Road To Recovery

In a video update on Feb. 23, Vonn detailed the extent of her injuries. “Basically, I had a complex tibia fracture, also fractured my fibular head, my tibial plateau,” she said. “Just kind of everything was in pieces.”

She said she also suffered compartment syndrome, explaining that the physical trauma caused pressure to build up in her leg, putting her muscles, nerves, and tendons at risk. Her surgeon, Hackett, had to perform a fasciotomy, and she said he “saved [her] leg from being amputated.”

On top of all that, Vonn also broke her right ankle. As a result, she said, “I’m very much immobile.” She expects to spend a few weeks in a wheelchair, followed by at least two months on crutches.

“I’m going to get right to work on rehab and see what I can do and take it one step at a time, like I always do,” she said. “But it’s been… I can’t tell you how painful it’s been. It’s been really hard and it was definitely not the way I wanted to end my Olympics.”

Vonn reflected on the comeback that allowed her to qualify for the 2026 Winter Olympics after previously retiring in February 2019 due to injury problems and not racing competitively for almost six years.

“I wish it had ended differently, really, but I’d rather go down swinging than not try at all,” she said. “And I think what I was able to achieve was more than anyone expected to begin with. You know, this year was incredible and so worth everything.”