Lindsey Vonn’s horror crash in the women’s downhill ski event at the Winter Olympics was caused when she caught a gate with her right side, a photograph has shown.
The former Olympic champion, 41, is in intensive care following the incident on Sunday, although it is understood that she was transferred there for the sake of extra privacy, rather than any greater medical necessity. The US team have also stated the 2010 gold medallist is ‘stable’.
Vonn had been competing in Cortina following a six-year hiatus from the sport and only nine days on from rupturing the ACL in her left knee in a training run crash ahead of the Games.
But Vonn was just 13 seconds into her run and had rounded the second corner when she appeared to lose control.
The 41-year-old sped over a hill and careered into one of the plastic markers on the side of the track before hitting the ground. Her right leg appeared to hit the ground first, as a cloud of powder engulfed the American. Vonn then tumbled forwards again, appearing to smash her shoulder into the ground, before coming to a halt on the slope.
The Cortina crowd fell silent as medical crews arrived to attend to Vonn, who was later airlifted off the mountain.
Distressing scenes then followed, with Vonn, whose skis had not detached from her boots, seen wincing in pain as she lay on her back in the snow. The American was also heard crying out in agony as the medics placed her onto a stretcher.
And, a photo from AP, moments before Vonn’s crash, shows the skier careering into the ski gate while she was in the air and speeding down the mountain.
Her right arm appeared to be on the wrong side of the gate, and the force of her body was evident as the ski gate seemingly snapped.
Vonn went tumbling seconds after colliding into the gate, with her body rotating 180 degrees before her heavy crash.
Organisers then began to play background music over the skier’s cries as she was lifted onto a stretcher.
An update from the US Ski and Snowboard Team on X later explained that Vonn had sustained an injury but was in stable condition before undergoing surgery for a left-leg fracture.
‘Update: Lindsey Vonn sustained an injury, but is in stable condition and in good hands with a team of American and Italian physicians,’ a spokesman had said.
Reuters then reported on Monday that Vonn underwent two operations for what they described as a ‘serious leg fracture’, with a joint team of local orthopaedic and plastic surgeons operating on her.
These procedures were done to prevent complications linked to swelling and blood flow, the report added, and although Vonn’s personal doctor was present Italian surgeons led the procedures.
The hospital she was taken to in Treviso had not previously mentioned a second operation.
The 41-year-old had defied the impossible by coming back to compete after rupturing her ACL prior to the Games and had completed multiple training runs in the build-up to Sunday’s event.
While concerns have arisen over whether the 2010 Olympic champion was taking a risk in entering the competition – having undergone a reconstruction in her right knee back in 2024 and rupturing her ACL before the tournament – Vonn had made the decision to compete in Sunday’s downhill final.
She had posted a time that was 1.39 seconds off the fastest run during a training session on Friday.
The American, who has won 84 World Cups across multiple alpine skiing events during her glittering career, would improve on that on Saturday, posting a time of one minute and 38 seconds, which was 37 seconds shy of team-mate Breezy Johnson, who went on to claim gold on Sunday.
Speaking surrounding the controversy of Vonn taking the decision to compete, International Ski Federation President Johan Eliasch insisted it was up to the competitor, before outlining how unlucky the American was in regards to her accident.
‘I firmly believe that this has to be decided by the individual,’ he said. ‘And in her case, she certainly knows her injuries a lot better than anybody else.
‘And what is also important for people to understand that the accident that she had yesterday, she was incredibly unlucky.
‘It was a one in a thousand. She got too close to the gate, and she got stuck when she was in the air in the gate and started rotating.’
Meanwhile, as Vonn left the gates on Sunday, her coach was heard shouting, ‘keep charging, keep pushing’.
The downhill event was subsequently suspended, with other competitors removing their skis at the top of the slope as they waited for Vonn to be evacuated.
BBC pundit and former alpine skier Chemmy Alcott was distressed by the scenes unfolding in Cortina d’Ampezzo.
‘I feel guilty that I am this emotional,’ Alcott said to the BBC. ‘I just never believed it would end in a clump at the side of the piste, not moving. What we saw was that the top of the piste is really hard for a fit athlete; she just had her right knee. It is brutal, think about her family, her team and herself.
‘We have to be realistic. The risk was really high, the risk she takes when she falls will double that, her body will not be able to take that. There is clapping and there is hope that she would be okay but they have put up some background music because it is uncomfortable.’
