A Health Update on Lindsey Vonn After Her 2026 Winter Olympics Crash

Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn’s experience with professional skiing is sort of bittersweet. She’s good at it, no doubt, but it’s also caused her to suffer some pretty severe injuries. In fact, she attempted retirement in 2019 because of them, and later underwent a partial knee replacement in 2023.

Maybe the progress she made after that made it easy for her to forget just how grueling the slopes can be, because she decided to make a return in late 2024, and even set her sights on competing in the 2026 Olympics.

But her comeback came to a screeching halt not long after getting back into the sport.

On Jan. 30, 2026, Vonn suffered a ruptured ACL, a bone bruise, and damage to her meniscus after crashing during a race in Switzerland, per ESPN. Another crash occurred while she was competing in the downhill final at the Winter Olympics in Cortina, Italy, on Feb. 8.

Here’s the extent of her injuries and how she’s doing.

Lindsey Vonn took a spill during a downhill race in Switzerland on Jan. 30, 2026, just before the 2026 Winter Olympics, and then suffered another major fall on Feb. 8. This time, her injuries were much more severe and required surgery.

On Feb. 8, the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Team announced on X (formerly Twitter) that “Lindsey Vonn sustained an injury, but is in stable condition and in good hands with a team of American and Italian physicians.” ESPN later reported that Lindsey “underwent an orthopedic operation to stabilize a fracture reported in her left leg,” according to a statement from Ca’ Foncello Hospital. So, it appears her Feb. 8 crash during the Winter Olympics resulted in a broken bone in her left leg.

While many were quick to blame Lindsey's Jan. 30 injury for the more serious Feb. 8 crash, other pro skiers, like Keely Cashman, say viewers “don’t know what’s going on.” For context, it wasn’t Lindsey's previous leg injury that caused the Feb. 8 crash.

According to Keely, as reported by ESPN, “She hooked her arm on the gate, which twisted her around.

She was going probably 70 mph, and so that twists your body around.” After Lindsey clipped the gate, she started “pinwheeling down the slope,” per ESPN, and landed on her back with her “skis crisscrossed below her.” She could be heard screaming for aid before being placed on a stretcher and airlifted from the course.

Since her left leg was already in a vulnerable state, her collision with the gate caused it to worsen.

After Lindsey's ACL injury on Jan. 30, 2026, some felt she shouldn’t have been allowed to compete in the 2026 Winter Olympics, no matter how determined she was. One person questioned on X, “How was she allowed to ski?” while another asked, “Who cleared her to ski on a torn ACL? Seems irresponsible.” Others, however, wished her a quick recovery.