Winter Olympics live: Lindsey Vonn has ‘no regrets’ over competing despite broken leg from horror crash – UK Times

Senior officials at the Winter Olympics have defended Lindsey Vonn’s decision to compete in Sunday’s downhill just nine days after rupturing her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) – with the skiing great’s horror crash described as “a one in 1000” accident.

“I think it’s clear in the downhill we give athletes opportunities to train to make sure they are able to go down the slope in the way it should be for all the athletes,” the International Olympic Committee’s sports director Pierre Ducrey said.

“That happened, she was able to train and made the choice, with the excellent team that she has, to take part, so from that point of view I don’t think we should say that she should or shouldn’t have participated. This decision was really hers and her team’s to take. She made the decision and unfortunately it led to the injury.”

Lindsey Vonn posted an update late on Monday to her 3.2m followers on Instagram saying that she has ‘no regrets’ about competing in Cortina despite her ‘Olympic dream not ending the way I had dreamt’.

“Yesterday my Olympic dream did not finish the way I dreamt it would.” Vonn wrote.

“It wasn’t a story book ending or a fairytale, it was just life. I dared to dream and had worked so hard to achieve it…

“… While yesterday did not end the way I had hoped, and despite the intense physical pain it caused, I have no regrets. Standing in the starting gate yesterday was an incredible feeling that I will never forget.”

US skier Lindsey Vonn was moved to intensive care “for privacy reasons” rather than medical necessity, according to the Daily Mail.

The report says that Vonn, 41, “is in intensive care” following her incident on Sunday, “although it is understood that she was transferred there for the sake of extra privacy, rather than any greater medical necessity”.

Vonn reportedly underwent two surgeries on a leg fracture in a hospital in Treviso, though her team have not provided any further updates on her condition.

As Lindsey Vonn was airlifted off the slope at Crans-Montana nine days ago it looked like her hopes of a fourth Olympic medal were over. Those hopes had already looked unlikely a season and a half ago when she made her comeback after six years’ retirement. But she had proved everyone wrong multiple times already; it would be foolish to expect her not to do so again.

The Crans-Montana crash left her with a completely ruptured ACL in her left knee, a bone bruise and meniscus damage. It is only the latest in a litany of broken bones, concussions, and other serious injuries which have punctuated her career.

In her final race before retirement, the world championships downhill in 2019, she wore two knee braces to stabilise a torn lateral collateral ligament, three tibia fractures and a bone bruise. All of that couldn’t prevent her from winning bronze. In the 2013 world championships she tore her ACL and MCL in her right knee and fractured her tibia; later in 2013 she partially tore her right ACL again.

The 2026 Winter Olympics are underway in northern Italy as Milan-Cortina plays host to the century-old sporting event.

Norway are historically the most successful nation in the Winter Games and the Norwegians are once again favourites to top the medal table, having claimed 16 golds in Beijing four years ago, four more than second-placed Germany.

The USA are expected to put up a strong challenge to Norway’s dominance, while Germany and Canada are also expected to enjoy plenty of success. Host nation Italy are also hopeful of a top-10 finish in the standings, as are their Alpine neighbours France and Switzerland.

Here are the latest standings from Milan-Cortina 2026:

“She’s 41 years old and this is the end of her career,” Alan Kildow told The Associated Press. “There will be no more ski races for Lindsey Vonn, as long as I have anything to say about it.”

Kildow and the rest of Vonn’s family – including her brother and two sisters – have been with Vonn while she is being treated at a hospital in Treviso following her fall and helicopter evacuation from the course in Cortina on Sunday.

“As someone who lived in downhill skiing and works in it now, that is a really good outcome for Lindsey Vonn,” says former GB Alpine skier Chemmy Alcott on Vonn’s injury and crash.

“A broken leg, which she’s had surgery on, it’s her left leg and we’re going to channel all of our energy together in her left leg which now needs an ACL and bone healing.

“If it had been her right leg with that knee replacement, it could have been really disastrous so we don’t know where she’s going to go from this, but we hope she takes all the time she needs,” added the former Olympian on BBC One.

US skier Lindsey Vonn needed two operations on the broken leg suffered in her crash yesterday, reports Reuters.

The procedures “were intended to prevent complications linked to swelling and blood flow”, according to the report.

It had earlier been confirmed by the hospital in Treviso that Vonn underwent an operation to stabilise her left leg after the incident.

Olympic medallists at the Milano Cortina Winter Games are discovering their hard-won prizes are proving less robust than their athletic achievements, with reports emerging that the gold, silver, and bronze awards are prone to breaking.

Games organisers have now launched an investigation into a series of incidents where medals have cracked, chipped, or snapped, often shortly after being presented.

Several figures from the world of speed skiing have commented on Lindsey’s Vonn’s decision to race and her eventual crash, with most pros and pundits defending the American.

“I firmly believe that this has to be decided by the individual athlete,” FIS president Johan Eliasch said on Monday.

“And in her case, she certainly knows her injuries on her body better than anybody else. And if you look around here today with all the athletes, the athletes yesterday, every single athlete has a small injury of some kind.

“What is also important for people to understand, that the accident that she had yesterday, she was incredibly unlucky. It was a one in a 1,000,” Eliasch added.

Vonn’s teammate Keely Cashman added: “People that don’t know ski racing don’t really understand what happened yesterday. She hooked her arm on the gate, which twisted her around. She was going probably 70 miles an hour, and so that twists your body around. That has nothing to do with her ACL, nothing to with her knee. I think a lot of people are ridiculing that, and a lot people don’t (know) what’s going on.”