Lindsey Vonn’s health situation is becoming the focus of attention. Alongside the emotional message from Sofia Goggia, doctors are now concentrating on analyzing a crucial detail in NBC’s slow-motion video.
This detail is believed to have the potential to completely alter the prognosis for the female athlete’s recovery.
CORTINA d’AMPEZZO, Italy — Lindsey Vonn suffered a complex tibia fracture during the women’s downhill event on Sunday, Feb. 8 at the 2026 Winter Olympics. Vonn, who was skiing on a torn ACL suffered during pre-Olympics training, crashed after her arm hooked the fourth gate during her run.
Vonn was in obvious pain after the crash, but she was moving her arms, head and neck.
Vonn was airlifted off the slopes and taken to a clinic in Cortina before she was transferred to a hospital two hours south in Treviso. Vonn had surgery at Ca’Foncello Hospital to stabilize the broken left leg, the hospital said in a statement on Feb. 8.
“While yesterday did not end the way I had hoped, and despite the intense physical pain it caused, I have no regrets,” Vonn said in an Instagram post on Feb. 9, after the horrific crash. “Standing in the starting gate yesterday was an incredible feeling that I will never forget. Knowing I stood there having a chance to win was a victory in and of itself.
“I also knew that racing was a risk. It always was and always will be an incredibly dangerous sport.”
Vonn said her torn ACL, suffered the week prior to the Winter Games, had nothing to do with the crash. She injured her left knee – she also had bone bruising and meniscus damage – in another crash on Jan. 30 in the final downhill before the Olympics.
“In downhill ski racing the difference between a strategic line and a catastrophic injury can be as small as 5 inches. I was simply 5 inches too tight on my line when my right arm hooked inside of the gate, twisting me and resulted in my crash,” Vonn said. “My ACL and past injuries had nothing to do with my crash whatsoever.”
USA TODAY Sports will provide updates on Vonn’s condition after Sunday’s brutal fall on the slopes:
Lindsey Vonn of Team United States crashes during the Women’s Downhill on day two of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic.
Lindsey Vonn of Team United States crashes during the Women’s Downhill on day two of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic.
A helicopter carries U.S. skier Lindsey Vonn after her crash in the women’s downhill event at the 2026 Winter Olympic Games at the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre in Cortina d’Ampezzo on Feb. 8, 2026.
Lindsey Vonn of Team United States crashes during the Women’s Downhill on day two of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic.
Lindsey Vonn hooked the fourth gate with her right arm, and it spun her off-balance. She fought to regain control, but her legs had already splayed and her weight quickly shifted to the back of her skis, pulling her backward. She fell to her right and then tumbled headfirst in the snow.
“Things just happen so quick in this sport,” U.S. teammate Bella Wright said after the race. “It looked like Lindsey had incredible speed out of that turn, and she hooked her arm and it’s just over just like that.”
The three-time Olympic medalist remained prone in the snow, and she could be heard wailing in pain. The gasps and groans from fans faded into shocked silence as medics worked on her. Vonn remained on the course for approximately 13 minutes before being loaded into a helicopter.
OPINION: Lindsey Vonn’s crash was cruel. Her bravery epitomizes Olympic spirit
U.S. Ski said on Sunday, Feb. 8 that Lindsey Vonn was in stable condition. She was treated by a multidisciplinary team and “underwent an orthopedic operation to stabilize a fracture reported in her left leg,” the Ca’ Foncello hospital said in a statement to the AP.
“She’ll be OK, but it’s going to be a bit of a process,” Anouk Patty, chief of sport for U.S. Ski and Snowboard told AP. “This sport’s brutal and people need to remember when they’re watching (that) these athletes are throwing themselves down a mountain and going really, really fast.”
A tibia fracture is a break in the shin bone that is an emergency needing immediate treatment.
“Your tibias are some of the strongest bones in your body. It usually takes a lot of force to break one,” according to the Cleveland Clinic. “You probably won’t be able to stand, walk or put weight on your leg if you have a broken shin bone.”
A complex fracture involves multiple breaks in a bone and damaged soft tissue, according Yale Medicine. Symptoms include extreme pain, numbness and, sometimes, a bone that protrudes through the skin. Treatment involves stabilization and surgery.
The precise speed Lindsey Vonn was traveling at the time of her crash at the 2026 Winter Olympics does not fully capture what propelled her down that mountain.
“Lindsey only knows one speed, and that’s all out,” said Fraser Bullock, the President and Executive Chair of Utah 2034, the Olympic organizing committee.
Erin Mendenhall, the mayor of Salt Lake City, said she messaged Vonn before and after the race.
“She is the epitome of courage and Olympianism,” Mendenhall said.
Read more from USA TODAY Sports’ Josh Peter.
Lindsey Vonn is feeling well enough to text with friends. Italian skiing star Sofia Goggia, one of Vonn’s closest friends, said Tuesday that she and Vonn had texted a day earlier.
“I’m really sorry for her. She didn’t deserve this,” Goggia said after crashing in the downhill portion of the team combined event. Goggia won bronze in the individual downhill two days prior and lit the cauldron in Cortina during the opening ceremoney.
Vonn suffered a complex tibial fracture in a crash during the Olympic downhill Sunday, Feb. 8, and she said it will require multiple surgeries.
“I’m really sorry for her,” Goggia said. “I feel the suffering that she has inside of herself.” − Nancy Armour
NBC broadcasts the Olympics and posted video of Vonn’s crash.
USA TODAY Sports’ Samantha Cardona-Norberg breaks down Linsdey Vonn’s crash just after it happened.
Fans went silent as soon as Vonn crash, reacting with shock, grief and later support as the helicopter lifted her into the sky. USA TODAY Sports talked to some fans after the crash.
A replay of Lindsey Vonn’s crash was shown during the NBC broadcast in the moments that followed the conclusion of Super Bowl 60. The broadcast was edited down, spending just three minutes on Vonn, from the start of her race at the gate to her being airlifted off the course and taken to a hospital.
The three-minute window also included two replays and showed the reactions from some of her peers who were also competing.
It was second time in as many weeks Vonn left a mountaintop on a chopper. She fully ruptured her left ACL, sustaining meniscus damage and bone bruising, in a downhill crash on Jan. 30, in the final World Cup event prior to the start of the Olympics.
Vonn was also skiing with a partial replacement of her right knee. She had dominated the sport before the crash, making the podium in all five downhill races this season and winning two of them.
Despite the latest injury, Vonn was determined to race at her fifth and final Olympics. She said her knee felt stable and strong, and she had spent the last week doing intense rehab, pool workouts, weight lifting and plyometrics. She skied both training runs, posting the third-fastest time in the second run before it was canceled because of fog and snow.
Vonn is 41 and was skiing in her fifth Winter Olympics (2002, 2006, 2010, 2018, 2026). She has won three Olympic medals (1 gold, 2 bronze).
Here’s a list of Vonn’s significant injuries throughout her career:
January 2026: Torn ACL in left knee.
January 2019: Impact injury to peroneal nerve.
November 2018: Torn lateral collateral ligament and meniscus in left knee, three tibial plateau fractures from crash during training at Copper Mountain, Colorado.
November 2016: Fractured humerus in right arm from crash during training at Copper Mountain, Colorado.
August 2015: Broken ankle from crash during training in New Zealand.
February 2016: Multiple fractures in left knee from crash during World Cup super-G in Andorra.
December 2013: MCL sprain in right knee.
November 2013: Torn right ACL from crash in training at Copper Mountain, Colorado.
February 2013: Torn ACL and MCL in right knee and tibial plateau fracture in right leg following crash in super-G at world championships.
February 2010: Broken right pinkie from crash in giant slalom at Vancouver Olympics. (Where she’d previously won the downhill gold.)
December 2009: Microfractures in left forearm after crash during giant slalom in Lienz, Austria.
February 2009: Severed tendon in right thumb cutting open champagne bottle at world championships in Val d’Isère, France.
February 2007: Sprained right ACL after crash during training at the world championships in Åre, Sweden.
