USA skier Lindsey Vonn crashed 12 seconds into her downhill run during the 2026 Milan-Cortina Games on Sunday and was airlifted from the mountain.
After a historic comeback to the sport, Vonn, 41, became the oldest alpine skier to race at a Winter Olympics. Those who witnessed the crash called it “heartbreaking.”
“Her right ski pole snagged a gate, jerking her off balance and out of control,” according to a Team USA press release.
It is a common practice for athletes to be airlifted from the mountain following injuries during alpine competitions.
The U.S. Ski Team reported on social media that Vonn is “in stable condition and in good hands with a team of American and Italian physicians.” Vonn — who was taken to a clinic in Cortina and then transferred to a larger hospital in Treviso, a two-hour drive to the south — has undergone “an orthopedic operation” to stabilize a fracture in her left leg, the Associated Press reported.
The track for the race, the Olympia delle Tofane, has been hosting International Ski and Snowboard Federation World Cup speed races since the 1956 Olympic Winter Games. The course starts with an almost immediate 64% gradient descent, according to the Milan-Cortina official website.
Vonn was competing on a ruptured ACL received during a Jan. 30 World Cup crash in Switzerland; she was also skiing with bone bruising and meniscal damage.
The crash took place just one day after Vonn clocked the third-fastest time during her second downhill training run.
In the end, USA skier Breezy Johnson won gold, Emma Aicher of Germany took silver and Sofia Goggia of Italy claimed bronze in the women’s downhill.
“I had a good feeling about today. I still can’t believe it. I don’t know when it will sink in,” Johnson said after the race.
Johnson said she hopes Vonn’s crash was “not as bad as it looked.”
“I know how difficult it is to ski this course and how sometimes, because you love this course so much, when you crash on it, and it hurts you like that, it hurts you that much worse.”
Vonn’s USA teammate Isabella Wright finished 21st. Vonn showed that she could do a lot of things that other people can’t.
Wright was at the top of the course and saw Vonn’s crash live. “You don’t want that for anyone, and you especially don’t want it for your teammate and for Lindsey,” she said. “She deserved a better ending than that, so I’m very heartbroken for her.
“I always say this, ‘If anyone can do it, it’s Lindsey’. Whatever it is, or whatever the situation, she’s very strong.”
Vonn’s storied career defined by injury
An Olympic champion who has won a gold and two bronze medals, Vonn has faced numerous injuries during her storied career.
Vonn began her Olympic journey in Salt Lake City in 2002 at the age of 17.
In Torino in 2006, Vonn suffered a bad fall in a training run, requiring hospital treatment. She finished eighth in the Olympic downhill, seventh in the Super G and 14th in the slalom, according to her Olympic bio
Again in 2010 in Vancouver, Vonn competed with a badly bruised and swollen shin which she injured a week before the Opening Ceremonies during a slalom training run in Austria. Still, Vonn won gold.
Then as she prepared for the Sochi 2014 Games, Vonn seriously damaged her right knee at the World Championships in February 2013 in Austria. Later that year during the World Cup in November 2013, she injured her knee again in France. After surgery, she had to sit out of the Sochi 2014 Games.
She would later break her arm during training in November 2016.
Then, after winning bronze during the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, Vonn suffered another knee injury in November 2018.
She retired in 2019 and underwent partial knee replacement surgery.
But in November of 2024, nearly six years after retiring, Vonn announced her return to ski racing.
After arriving in Italy, Vonn said during a news conference with Team USA speed alpine skiers, that after every crash she has “always gotten back up.”
“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.”
Utah Olympic leaders praise Vonn’s courage
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said he wasn’t watching the downhill race when Vonn crashed, because he was at the airport in Milan, welcoming members of the U.S. Hockey team — including the Utah Mammoth’s Clayton Keller.
“Our prayers are with her,” Cox told the Deseret News. “We love Lindsey. She’s part of our committee. She’s been an important part of getting the Games to Utah. We’re so proud of her, the courage it took to come back in the first place. The courage it took to ski without an ACL. I don’t even know how that’s possible and yet, she did it.”
“Even in defeat, she won the hearts of the world, again,” he said.
Fraser Bullock, executive chair and president of Utah’s 2034 Winter Games, said “while I am heartbroken from this crash, never have I seen greater courage.”
Vonn, he said, taught him to never give up in the face of seemingly impossible odds.
“The fact that she completed two successful training runs with a ruptured ACL and other injuries defies description,” Bullock said. “It looked like she was going all out today, which is the only speed she knows. ...
“This moment will go down in history as one of courage to face the impossible.”
Four-time Olympic speedskater Catherine Raney Norman, vice president of the 2034 Winter Games, spoke of Vonn’s “bravery and courage” to get out on the hill.
“I know it’s not the outcome that she was looking for or hoping for, but I think she is, honestly, an incredible role model for people — for how to get back up and and how to continue to chase after your dreams."
The Olympics aren’t always about earning a medal, she said. Vonn ”has showed globally that when you fall down, you get back up and you keep chasing and keep charging.”
Contributing: Lisa Riley Roche