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Olympic legend Lindsey Vonn revealed on Wednesday that she had undergone a third surgery on her broken leg following a fall at the Milan Cortina 2026 Games.
Vonn called the surgery “successful” in a post on her Instagram. She shared the update with photos of herself in a hospital bed and a metal frame attached to her leg.
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Lindsey Vonn of the United States in the finish zone during women’s downhill training during the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at the Tofane Alpine Ski Center on February 6, 2026. (Léonhard Foeger/Reuters via Imagn Images)
“I had my third surgery today and it was successful. Success today has a completely different meaning than it did a few days ago,” Vonn wrote in her post. “I’m making progress and even though it’s slow, I know everything will be okay.
“I’m grateful for all the incredible medical staff, my friends, my family, who have been by my side and for the great outpouring of love and support from people around the world. Also, a huge congratulations to my teammates and all the athletes on Team USA who are there to inspire me and give me something to cheer me on.”
Superstar athletes including Naomi Osaka and Shaun White wished Vonn well as she begins her recovery and rehabilitation process.
Vonn, 41, was already skiing with a torn anterior cruciate ligament, but she had to be airlifted off the mountain in a frightening scene during the women’s downhill alpine ski event on Sunday.
Lindsey Vonn of Team USA during course inspection before downhill training at the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics at the Tofane Alpine Ski Center on February 6, 2026 in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. (Daniel Kopatsch/VOIGT/GettyImages)
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Officials at an Italian hospital where Vonn was taken quickly after the accident said she underwent surgery to “stabilize a reported fracture in her left leg.” Vonn had said she suffered a “complex tibia fracture that is currently stable but will require multiple surgeries to properly repair.”
Before the Games began, many wondered how Vonn would ski with her torn ACL, but she was determined to try to medal in her signature event. Her Friday and Saturday races went well, but she lost control a few seconds into her Sunday race, and things got very serious after that.
Vonn said earlier this week that she doesn’t regret her decision to run.
“Even though yesterday didn’t end the way I had hoped, and despite the intense physical pain it caused, I have no regrets. Standing in the starting gate yesterday was an incredible feeling that I will never forget,” she wrote in another post on Instagram. “Knowing that I had a chance to win was a victory in itself. I also knew that racing was a risk. It has always been and always will be an incredibly dangerous sport.
“And like ski racing, we take risks in life. We dream. We love. We jump. And sometimes we fall. Sometimes our hearts are broken. Sometimes we don’t achieve the dreams we know we can have. But that’s also the beauty of life; we can try.
Lindsey Vonn of the United States arrives at the finish area of a women’s downhill alpine skiing practice at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
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“I tried. I dreamed. I jumped.”
