Lindsey Vonn of Team United States crashes during the Women’s Downhill Saturday at the Winter Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
Screengrab by IOC via Getty Images/Getty Images
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Screengrab by IOC via Getty Images/Getty Images
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — The 41-year-old Team USA star Lindsey Vonn suffered a “complex tibia fracture” when she crashed in the Olympic downhill race on Sunday, the skier said on Instagram in her first public statement since the race.
Vonn was airlifted by helicopter from the course Sunday and transported to a hospital in Treviso, some two hours from Cortina, to receive initial treatment to stabilize the fracture in her left leg, the hospital told NPR. Multiple additional surgeries will be needed to “fix [her leg] properly,” Vonn said.
“In Downhill ski racing the difference between a strategic line and a catastrophic injury can be as small as 5 inches,” she wrote, posting late Monday night local time in Italy, about 35 hours after her crash. “While yesterday did not end the way I had hoped, and despite the intense physical pain it caused, I have no regrets.”
Vonn did not say whether she would retire from skiing upon recovery.
She was competing in the Olympic race on Sunday despite a tear to her left anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, suffered just eight days before the race.
Her crash came just 13 seconds into the race. As she passed through a race gate, her right arm caught on the gate and spun her into the air. She landed hard on the snow and bounced down the slope before coming to a rest on her back. As medical crews rushed to her aid, she could be heard screaming in pain.
On Monday, she said the ACL tear had not contributed to her crash. “I was simply 5 inches too tight on my line when my right arm hooked inside of the gate, twisting me and resulted in my crash,” she wrote. “My ACL and past injuries had nothing to do with my crash whatsoever.”
