On Jan. 30, Olympic downhill skier Lindsey Vonn suffered a ruptured ACL, meniscus damage, and bone bruising to her left knee during a World Cup run in Crans-Montana, Switzerland.
On Feb. 3, only five days before she was set to compete in the 2026 Winter Olympics, Vonn announced her injuries on Instagram and said, “My Olympic dream is not over… if there’s one thing I know how to do, it’s a comeback.”
On Feb. 8, during the women’s downhill event in Cortina, Italy, Vonn crashed again, suffering a complex tibia fracture to the same knee.
On the surface, this clearly isn’t the comeback Vonn had envisioned. However, for Vonn, a fourth Olympic medal wasn’t the only outcome she was willing to accept. Vonn’s comeback didn’t have to be measured in Olympic gold or flawless runs.
At 41, Vonn was competing to become the oldest Alpine skiing medalist in history. After her retirement in 2019 due to a series of crashes and injuries, Vonn announced that her body was “broken beyond repair.” However, five years later, after a partial knee replacement, she announced her return to skiing in November 2024. Since coming back, Vonn has podiumed at every downhill race and won a silver medal in the Super-G at the World Cup circuit.
Vonn is one of the greatest downhill skiers of all time, and her name has become synonymous with the Winter Olympics. However, her decision to compete in this year’s games was met with criticism. Some accused her of being selfish for taking the spot of a healthier athlete, or of the risk of competing with a ruptured ACL not being worth the reward.
But Vonn knew her own limits, and this was not one of them.
Vonn is the expert; not only does she know her body and abilities best, but also the risks of the sport and what it takes to be great at it. She understands that the mountain is unforgiving and that one wrong move, or a tight line, is all it takes to end a race or end a career.
In her Instagram post on Feb. 10, Vonn said, “My ACL and past injuries had nothing to do with my crash whatsoever…While yesterday did not end the way I had hoped, and despite the intense physical pain it caused, I have no regrets…that is also the beauty of life; we can try”.
Vonn was right when she said she knew how to make a comeback. She returned after six years in retirement with a titanium knee, and she came back after six days with a ruptured ACL just because she believed in trying.
Those 13 seconds before crashing in Cortina might have been Vonn’s last moments of competition, but they do not define her legacy; it is built on success and her strong willingness to try.
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