⚡ CRASH, SURGERY, AND UNCERTAINTY: Lindsey Vonn Faces Shocking Setback — Could Another Operation Be Coming? Just seconds into her downhill run, Lindsey Vonn suffered a brutal crash, resulting in a complex tibia fracture that required five surgeries in Italy. After nearly two weeks confined to a hospital bed and bones reinforced with metal, a long, grueling year of recovery now separates her from the slopes she loves. The real shock? Lindsey has hinted she might need surgery again, leaving fans anxious and speculating about what comes next. Read the full story — her battle is far from over…
After sustaining a torn ACL just a week before the Winter Olympics, Vonn made the decision to compete anyway. She completed two training runs on back-to-back days leading up to her first downhill event.
However, just seconds into the race, she crashed and suffered a complex tibia fracture — an injury that has kept her hospitalized for nearly two weeks. During that time, she underwent more than five surgeries in Italy before returning to the United States to continue treatment.
Now, things finally appear to be looking up. On Monday morning, Vonn shared in a public video on social media that she has been released from the hospital and is well enough to move to a hotel — a major step forward, even if she’s not home just yet.
“I’m finally out of the hospital!!! After almost 2 weeks of laying in a hospital bed almost completely immobile, I’m finally well enough to move to a hotel. It’s not home yet, but it’s a huge step!”
Vonn also addressed the severity of her injury and the difficult circumstances surrounding it.
“I hope I explained my injury well enough. I’m not a doctor, so if I don’t explain something perfectly please forgive me. When the injury happened, the situation was quite challenging in many ways, but in the end, it was brought back under control. Again, thank you Dr. Tom Hackett.”
Looking ahead, Vonn detailed the long road to recovery still in front of her.
“Now I will focus on rehab and progressing from a wheelchair to crutches in a few weeks. It will take around a year for all of the bones to heal, and then I will decide if I want to take out all the metal or not, and then go back into surgery and finally fix my ACL… It will be a long road, but I’ll get there. At least I’m out of the hospital.”
Vonn is one of the most decorated American alpine skiers in recent memory, and she entered these Games determined to prove her critics wrong after questions surfaced about competing at age 41.
Despite the injury, she did just that simply by qualifying — and she backed it up with some of her strongest results throughout 2025 leading into the Olympics, reinforcing that she still belonged on the sport’s biggest stage.
Now, with the closing ceremony having taken place Sunday, the Olympic Games are officially over. It’s difficult to imagine Vonn returning in four years at age 45 for the 2030 Winter Games in France, making this chapter of her career feel even more significant.