3 min readFeb 21, 2026 12:41 AM IST
Right after having another surgery on her badly broken left leg, ski legend Lindsey Vonn posted images of her injury situation and a clip of her being wheeled in for her surgery. Since she suffered a gruesome crash while competing at the Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina around two weeks ago, Vonn has remained hospitalised. Before she was flown off to the USA, she underwent at least four surgeries at a hospital in Italy.
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“Made it through surgery… it took a bit more than 6 hours to complete. As you can see, it required a lot of plates and screws to put back together but Dr Hackett did an incredible job. Thank you Dr Viola for the surgery assist as well!!” Vonn posted on her Instagram handle. “With the extent of the trauma, I’ve been struggling a bit post op and have not yet been able to be discharged from the hospital just yet… almost there. Baby steps. Will explain the injury and what it all means soon.”
On her X handle, next to an X-ray showing metal screws inside her leg, she wrote: “I’m bionic for real now.”
Vonn was attempting to win a medal at the Milan Cortina Games at age 41 with a torn ACL in her left knee and a partial titanium replacement in her right knee. But she got hooked on a gate 13 seconds into her run — resulting in a spinning, air-born crash that sent her careening down the mountain in Cortina d’Ampezzo.
This combination of images shows the United States’ Lindsey Vonn 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/Jacquelyn Martin)
Because her skis did not release during the crash, the fall has raised safety issues among the skiing circuit.
Earlier, while posting on her social media handles, Vonn had written: “When I think back on my crash, I didn’t stand in the starting gate unaware of the potential consequences. I knew what I was doing. I chose to take a risk. Every skier in that starting gate took the same risk. Because even if you are the strongest person in the world, the mountain always holds the cards.
“But just because I was ready, that didn’t guarantee me anything. Nothing in life is guaranteed. That’s the gamble of chasing your dreams, you might fall but if you don’t try you’ll never know,” Vonn added.
