Lindsey Vonn said Saturday that her latest surgery on the left leg she broke in the Olympic downhill “went well” and she “will be able to finally go back to the U.S.”
The 41-year-old skier is receiving treatment at a hospital in Treviso.
Vonn sustained a “complex tibia fracture” during an Olympic downhill event last Sunday, crashing just 13 seconds into her run before being airlifted from the course.
She stated on Monday that the injury “will require multiple surgeries to fix properly,” later announcing a “successful” third operation on Wednesday.
Nine days before Sunday’s crash, Vonn ruptured the ACL in her left knee in another crash. Even before then, all eyes had been on her as the feel-good story heading into the Olympics for her comeback after nearly six years of retirement.
“I have been reading a lot of messages and comments saying that what has happened to me makes them sad,” Vonn said on Instagram. “Please, don’t be sad. Empathy, love and support I welcome with an open heart, but please not sadness or sympathy. I hope instead it gives you strength to keep fighting, because that is what I am doing and that is what I will continue to do. Always.
“When I think back on my crash, I didn’t stand in the starting gate unaware of the potential consequences. I knew what I was doing. I chose to take a risk.”
Vonn’s father, Alan Kildow, told The Associated Press on Monday that his daughter will no longer race if he has any influence over her decision.
But Vonn concluded her latest message by saying she is “still looking forward to the moment when I can stand on the top of the mountain once more. And I will.”
