Lindsey Vonn announced in a news conference with Team USA speed alpine skiers Tuesday afternoon that, despite a ruptured ACL, she plans to compete at the 2026 Winter Games that begin Friday in Milan-Cortina, Italy.
Vonn, 41, ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament in a Jan. 30 World Cup crash in Switzerland. She also has bone bruising and meniscal damage, she said.
Vonn, who has won one Olympic gold and two bronze medals, has also faced numerous injuries during her storied career.
“But as many times as I crash, I’ve always gotten back up,” she said. “As many times as I’ve failed, I’ve always won.”
That has given her the confidence to know what her body can and cannot do, she said.
“I’ve been in this position before. I know how to handle it. I’ve been on the world stage before. I know how to handle that.
“So, everything together, even though I don’t want to be in this position, I know how to be in this position, and I can handle it.”
Vonn said since the accident she has completed extensive therapy, consulted with doctors and, today, went skiing.
“Considering how my knee feels, I feel stable, I feel strong. My knee is not swollen, and with the help of a knee brace, I am confident that I can compete on Sunday.”
After retiring in 2019 and undergoing partial knee replacement surgery, Vonn hoped to make a storied Olympic comeback with a return to World Cup racing following an almost six year absence.
She said she knows her chances for that comeback are not the same today as they were before the crash.
“But I know there’s still a chance, and as long as there’s a chance, I will try,” she said.
Speaking about her planned participation in what will be her fifth Winter Games, Vonn said her “intention is to race everything.”
“I’m leaning on everyone on my team, my physical therapists, my doctors, my coaches, my trainer, everyone is working as hard as they can to get me to a place where I feel confident,” she said.
Her training will be “strategic and systematic,” she said. “I can’t take any unnecessary risks.”
Vonn said she has always gotten up after every crash.
“Unfortunately, in my career, I’ve had a lot of challenges. I have always pushed the limits and in downhill, it’s a very dangerous sport, and anything can happen,” she said. “And because I push the limits, I crash and I’ve been injured more times than I would like to admit, to myself even.
“But those are the cards I’ve been dealt in my life, and I’m going to play my cards the best way I can.
“Life’s not perfect.”
‘My Olympic dream is not over’
After being airlifted to a hospital after the crash, Vonn told her Instagram followers that she was “discussing the situation” with her doctors and team.
“This is a very difficult outcome one week before the Olympics … but if there’s one thing I know how to do, it’s a comeback. My Olympic dream is not over," posted Vonn, who came out of retirement last season following a partial replacement of her right knee.
“I’m doing my best right now,” she said in a later post that include video of her crash along with prayer hands and fingers crossed emojis. Before the accident, she had been winning race after race and last season, had become the oldest woman to medal in a skiing World Cup at 40.
An update over the weekend from Vonn’s personal coach, Chris Knight, spurred speculation she still may ski. Vonn made her Olympic debut at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.
“No she is not racing today but preparing for Cortina as usual,” Knight said in a text message to The Associated Press, confirming Vonn was not returning to compete at the World Cup race in Crans-Montana, Switzerland.
NBC, which holds U.S. broadcast rights to the Olympics through 2036, including Utah’s next Olympics, the 2034 Winter Games, called the coach’s text ”telling” and declared, “Few can rally as impressively as three-time Olympic medalist Lindsey Vonn.”
The New York Post quoted an unnamed NBC source Saturday saying Vonn was likely to be at the Olympics.
“Based on reports we’re hearing, we think she’s going to compete,” the source is quoted as saying. “Lindsay is so accomplished, obviously she’s a star … she’s been around for 24 years and she’s missed Olympics before, but we would not put anything past her.”
An unnamed friend of Vonn’s told The New York Post, “Lindsey’s telling everyone ‘Stay strong, don’t be a Debbie Downer.’ She needs everyone to give her positive energy to get through this — that’s the number-one message to her friends and family."
Vonn is playing a prominent role in the organizing of the Utah 2034 Games as one of six members of the executive committee empowered to make decisions about the state’s next Olympics and Paralympics for athletes with disabilities that follows.
The athletes family initiative that helped secure a second Winter Games for the state came from Vonn’s own experiences. Over the years, she saw firsthand the need to provide the families of athletes with housing, transportation, tickets and other services.
Vonn’s longtime friend, Fraser Bullock, president and executive chair of the Organizing Committee for the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, was upbeat about the possibility of her competing in Cortina.
“If anyone can do it, she can,” Bullock told the Deseret News.