• Posted February 10, 2026

Lindsey Vonn’s Olympic Comeback Ends in Crash and Broken Leg

Lindsey Vonn’s remarkable attempt to win an Olympic medal against the odds came to a sudden and painful end Sunday, when she crashed just seconds into the women’s downhill race and broke her left leg.

Vonn, 40, was skiing in a knee brace only nine days after tearing the ACL in her left knee. She was hoping to make history at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics by becoming the oldest alpine skier, male or female, to win an Olympic medal.

Instead, her race ended just 13.4 seconds after it began.

Under clear skies on the steep Tofane course in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Vonn pushed out of the starting gate as the 13th skier down the mountain. But before she reached the first section of the course, she lost control, tumbled violently and struck her head before coming to a stop.

Broadcast microphones picked up her screams as the crowd below, where her family stood waiting, fell silent.

Medical teams rushed to her side within minutes. Vonn was strapped to a stretcher, placed in a red medical bag, and airlifted off the mountain by helicopter.

The regional governor later confirmed that Vonn broke her left leg and required surgery to stabilize the injury.

Vonn’s sister, Karin Kildow, told NBC News she “put her whole heart” into making the Olympics.

“That’s definitely the last thing we wanted to see,” Kildow added. “When that happens, you’re just immediately hoping she’s OK, and it was scary. When you start to see the stretchers being put out, it’s not a good sign.”

Team USA coaches said Vonn remained under medical care in Cortina following the crash.

The injury stunned fans and fellow athletes alike, especially as just one day earlier, Vonn had posted the third-fastest training time, reaching speeds close to 78 miles per hour.

American skier Breezy Johnson went on to win the downhill gold medal with a time of 1:36.1, edging the silver medalist by just four-hundredths of a second. Still, the race was largely overshadowed by Vonn’s fall.

“My heart goes out to her, I hope it’s not as bad as it looked and I know how difficult it is to ski this course,” Johnson said, who crashed on the same course a few years earlier, injuring her knee. “Because you love this course so much, when you crash on it and it hurts you like that, it hurts that much worse.”

Cortina has long been Vonn’s favorite slope. She notched 12 of her 84 World Cup victories there and called it the main reason she came out of retirement in 2024, five years after injuries forced her away from the sport.

Earlier this season, Vonn made history again by becoming the oldest skier ever to win a World Cup race, thanks in part to a surgically repaired right knee that she said gave her new confidence.

But a serious crash in Switzerland late last month and then Sunday’s devastating fall ended her Olympic dream.

“My ACL was fully functioning until last Friday,” Vonn said. “Just because it seems impossible to you doesn’t mean it’s not possible. And yes, my ACL is 100% ruptured. Not 80% or 50%. It’s 100% gone.”

More information

The Cleveland Clinic has more on ACL tear and recovery.

SOURCE: NBC News, Feb. 8, 2026