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Lindsey Vonn underwent surgery “to stabilize a reported fracture in her left leg,” Italian hospital officials said Sunday, hours after the Olympic athlete seriously crashed during her race.
Vonn battled through a torn ACL to try to win a medal in the women’s downhill event in alpine skiing. She lost control a few seconds into her race and crashed in the first sector. She writhed in pain as medical professionals tended to her.
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In this image taken from video provided by Olympic Broadcasting Services, OBS, American Lindsey Vonn lies on the course after crashing during a women’s downhill alpine ski race at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (Olympic Broadcast Services via AP)
A helicopter was sent to take Vonn off the mountain. She was taken to a clinic in Cortina, then transferred to a hospital in Treviso.
Ca’Foncello Hospital released a statement regarding Vonn, saying she was “being treated by a multidisciplinary team. The U.S. Ski Team said Vonn was “in stable condition and in good hands with a team of American and Italian doctors.”
“She’ll be fine, but it’s going to be a bit of a process,” said Anouk Patty, U.S. Ski and Snowboard sports manager. “This sport is brutal and people need to remember when they watch that these athletes are throwing themselves off a mountain and going very, very fast.”
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Lindsey Vonn of the United States is airlifted after an accident during a women’s alpine ski race at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Breezy Johnson won the gold medal in this event, earning Team USA’s first at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games.
“I don’t pretend to know what she’s going through, but I know what it’s like to be here, to fight for the Olympics, to see this course burn you up and see these dreams die,” said Johnson, who missed the 2022 Games with a knee injury. “I can’t imagine the pain she’s going through and it’s not the physical pain – we can deal with the physical pain – but the emotional pain is something else.”
International Ski and Snowboard Federation President Johan Eliasch called Vonn’s accident “tragic, but it’s ski racing.”
In this image taken from video provided by Olympic Broadcasting Services, OBS, American Lindsey Vonn prepares to be evacuated after crashing during a women’s downhill alpine ski race at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (Olympic Broadcast Services via AP)
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“I can only say thank you to her for what she did for our sport,” he said, “because that race was the talk of the Games and it put our sport in the best possible light.”
