'I Have No Regrets': Lindsey Vonn Owns WInter Olympics Crash, Denies ACL Link

Last Updated:February 10, 2026, 08:54 IST

Vonn suffered a complex tibia fracture in the Milan–Cortina Winter Olympics crash -- which requited multiple surgeries -- but insists her ACL was not a factor.

Lindsey Vonn insists she has no regrets and no doubts after the crash that brutally ended her Olympic comeback.

The American skiing icon revealed on Monday that she suffered a “complex tibia fracture" in Sunday’s women’s downhill at the Milan–Cortina Winter Olympics and will require “multiple surgeries."

But she was unequivocal on one key point: her previously torn ACL had nothing to do with the fall.

“While yesterday did not end the way I had hoped, and despite the intense physical pain it caused, I have no regrets," Vonn said in her first statement since the crash.

The 41-year-old was addressing speculation that her ruptured anterior cruciate ligament — sustained in a World Cup crash before the Games — may have contributed to the accident. She dismissed that outright.

“My ACL had nothing to do with my crash whatsoever," Vonn said from the hospital in Treviso. “I was simply five inches too tight on my line when my right arm hooked inside of the gate, twisting me and resulting in my crash."

Vonn’s comeback story, one of the most talked-about narratives of the Games, unravelled just 13 seconds into the downhill on the Olimpia delle Tofane course. She lost control almost immediately, slammed face-first into the icy snow, and tumbled violently down the slope with her skis still attached.

The sight was harrowing. Vonn screamed in pain as medics rushed in, before she was airlifted away by helicopter to a standing ovation from the crowd.

The dream ended abruptly, but not with regret.

“My Olympic dream did not finish the way I dreamt it would," she said. “It wasn’t a storybook ending or a fairy tale. It was just life. I dared to dream and had worked so hard to achieve it."

She added: “In downhill ski racing, the difference between a strategic line and a catastrophic injury can be as small as five inches."

(with agency inputs)

News sports other-sports 'I Have No Regrets': Lindsey Vonn Owns WInter Olympics Crash, Denies ACL Link

Read More