Lindsey Vonn Says Injury 'Worse Than a Broken Leg'

She says she's back in the US but still 'immobile' after complex tibia fracture
Posted Feb 17, 2026 2:48 PM CST
Lindsey Vonn Says Injury 'Worse Than a Broken Leg'
United States' Lindsey Vonn is helicoptered off after crashing, during an alpine ski women's downhill race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026.   (AP Photo/Marco Trovati)

Lindsey Vonn says she is back in the US after her downhill crash at the Olympics, but she is still "immobile" and her injury was worse than "just" a broken leg. "Haven't stood on my feet in over a week… been in a hospital bed immobile since my race," she said in a post on X Monday night, per the New York Times. "And although I'm not yet able to stand, being back on home soil feels amazing." In an Instagram video documenting her transfer from an Italian hospital onto a private jet home, the 41-year-old skier declared, "My leg is still in pieces… but I'm finally HOME!" and added that the damage is "a lot more severe" than a broken leg. "I'm still wrapping my head around it, what it means and the road ahead," she wrote, promising more details in the coming days, USA Today reports.

Vonn underwent four surgeries in Italy after suffering a complex fracture of her left tibia in her crash at Cortina d'Ampezzo, where she hooked a gate with her arm, lost control, and tumbled hard into packed snow. She expects at least one more operation in the US and wrote that she's "seriously looking forward" to having the external fixator removed so she can move more easily. The three-time Olympic medalist, who came into the Games already racing on a reconstructed right knee and a fully ruptured left ACL suffered in a World Cup crash weeks earlier, ends the Instagram video smiling from a US hospital bed.

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