One of the most decorated alpine skiers in history, American downhill legend Lindsey Vonn is not ready to call time on her competitive career just yet – but she also refuses to rule out permanent retirement, three weeks after a devastating crash at the 2026 Cortina Winter Olympics left her on the brink of leg amputation.
The 41-year-old 2010 Olympic downhill champion has undergone eight invasive surgeries since the high-speed accident on February 8, where she crashed just 13 seconds into her downhill run after striking a gate, rupturing ligaments in her left knee and sustaining a complex tibia fracture. What makes this injury far more severe than any she has dealt with over her decades-long career, Vonn says, is that multiple medical procedures were required to save her leg from amputation.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Vonn acknowledged she is still navigating the acute recovery phase, describing her current mindset as being in “survival mode” that leaves her emotionally unready to commit to a final decision about her career. “I just don’t want to jump to any conclusions or even speculate on what I might do,” she explained. “I may retire. I may never race again and that would be completely fine, but I’m not in a position emotionally to make that decision at this point.”
Vonn’s recovery road stretches far into the future, with one more major procedure already scheduled: the upcoming surgery will remove existing metal hardware from her injury site and perform a replacement for her torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). After that operation, she faces another six months of structured rehabilitation, meaning she will need at least 18 months of progressive recovery before she could return to full fitness even for off-slope gym training, let alone competitive racing.
This is not Vonn’s first run with career-threatening injury: the skier, who holds 82 World Cup race wins – the second-most all time among female alpine skiers, trailing only fellow American Mikaela Shiffrin – initially retired from professional competition in 2019 after a string of serious leg injuries. She stunned the skiing world with a comeback announcement in 2024, after recovering from a partial right knee replacement, and entered her fifth Olympic Games as a medal contender, even competing through an ACL injury she sustained in the final pre-Olympic World Cup race in Switzerland.
That pre-Games injury, she says, pales in comparison to the damage sustained in Cortina. “It’s much different than any injury I’ve ever had, in terms of the severity of the injury and understanding that I could have lost my leg and how bad things were,” Vonn said. “I can deal with a lot of pain, but this was so extreme. It’s not even been in the universe of pain as what I’ve had before.”
Vonn, who returned to her home in the United States in mid-February after initial treatment in Italy, has continued to post incremental progress updates after each round of surgery. For now, her priority is pushing through the grueling initial recovery phase, rather than locking in a career choice. “I’m still in survival mode. I just want to get through this phase and be able to assess where I am in my life,” she said. “I don’t want to make a decision now because I think that would be rash and probably too emotional and I don’t want to make a mistake.”