Lindsey Vonn speaks out for first time, revealing how horrific Olympic accident actually happened

Lindsey Vonn has offered an update on Instagram after her horrific Olympic accident resulted in a fractured leg and several surgeries.

On Sunday, the American athlete was competing in the women’s downhill event when disaster struck just 13 seconds into her run. She clipped the gate, and it sent her hurtling down the course. While the fall itself was painful to watch, with her leg visibly turning in on itself, people online were particularly concerned after videos of her being treated went viral. She was in a huge amount of pain.

In a tragic end to her Olympic dreams, she was airlifted to Ca’ Foncello Hospital in Cortina to undergo multiple surgeries. As per the 2026 Olympic website, she had “orthopaedic surgery” to “stabilise a fracture in her left leg.”

Following that, Lindsey was in “stable condition” and receiving care from a “multidisciplinary team” of both American and Italian doctors.

BREAKING: 🇺🇸 Lindsey Vonn suffers catastrophic crash during #Olympics downhill run. She would be airlifted to a helicopter 🚁 after 10 minutes on the course. pic.twitter.com/Txkx8dWA9l

— Bill Speros (@billsperos) February 8, 2026

An update on Lindsey Vonn after the Olympic accident

In an update on Instagram, Lindsey Vonn unpacked her accident while detailing how it actually happened.

She wrote: “Yesterday my Olympic dream did not finish the way I dreamt it would. It wasn’t a storybook ending or a fairy tail, it was just life. I dared to dream and had worked so hard to achieve it. Because in Downhill ski racing the difference between a strategic line and a catastrophic injury can be as small as 5 inches.

“I was simply five inches too tight on my line when my right arm hooked inside of the gate, twisting me and resulted in my crash. My ACL and past injuries had nothing to do with my crash whatsoever.”

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She sustained a “complex tibia fracture” that is now stable, but will require further surgeries in the future. Despite that, she has no regrets.

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A post shared by L I N D S E Y • V O N N (@lindseyvonn)

She continued: “While yesterday did not end the way I had hoped, and despite the intense physical pain it caused, I have no regrets. 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.

“And similar to ski racing, we take risks in life. We dream. We love. We jump. And sometimes we fall. Sometimes our hearts are broken. Sometimes we don’t achieve the dreams we know we could have. But that is the also the beauty of life; we can try. I tried. I dreamt. I jumped.”

Everyone wished her well in the comments, with the likes of Reese Witherspoon and other Olympians hoping to see her on the snow again soon.

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Featured image credit: Twitter/Lindsey Vonn