Lindsey Vonn Suffers Severe Leg Injury in Olympic Crash

Lindsey Vonn, the 41-year-old American alpine skiing star, crashed just 13 seconds into her women's downhill run at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in Italy on February 8, suffering a compound fracture of her left leg that led to a life-threatening medical emergency and multiple surgeries to save the limb.

The incident occurred near the start of the race in Cortina d'Ampezzo, where Vonn lost control after clipping a gate, spinning airborne and slamming into the snow. She had entered the Olympics as a medal contender despite a complete rupture of her left ACL sustained a week earlier during a training crash in Switzerland. Medical teams airlifted her from the course, and initial assessments revealed severe damage including fractures to her tibia, fibula and ankle, along with tears to her meniscus and bone injuries.

The situation escalated rapidly after her transfer to a hospital in Treviso. Despite heavy doses of painkillers including fentanyl, morphine and oxycodone, Vonn experienced unrelenting agony during a CT scan. "Halfway through, I started sweating. I was just in such extreme pain," she recalled in an interview published Thursday in Vanity Fair. "I screamed at the...