CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy: Lindsey Vonn’s Winter Olympic dream ended with a broken leg after she dramatically crashed out of Sunday’s downhill won by her American teammate Breezy Johnson.
Vonn had been trying to claim the fourth Olympic medal of her career despite suffering a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee just over a week ago, but her race ended in agony after just 13 seconds in Cortina d’Ampezzo.
She cried out in anguish after her violent crash high up the course and medical staff quickly surrounded the distraught 41-year-old on the Olimpia delle Tofane piste where has enjoyed so much success in the past.
The 2010 Olympic downhill champion hit the snow face first, soon after pushing off from the start gate, and then rolled down the slope with her skis still attached.
The United States' Lindsey Vonn crashing during an alpine ski women's downhill race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo. (AP)
Vonn’s Olympic dream now lies in tatters after her audacious bid to achieve the seemingly impossible, an attempt which ended with her being winched up to a rescue helicopter as fans in the stands saluted her with loud applause.
She was taken to Treviso’s Ca’ Foncello hospital which later revealed that Vonn “underwent orthopaedic surgery to stabilize a fracture of the left leg.”
Johnson, who was already in the traditional leader’s chair after her aggressive run down the slope, said that she felt “heartache” at Vonn’s crash, which completely changed the complexion of the race.
Already the reigning world downhill champion, Johnson finished in front of Germany’s Emma Aicher by just 0.04s with Italy’s speed specialist Sofia Goggia taking bronze in front of home fans.
Skiing icon
Goggia had a long wait for her run as she was two down the starting list from Vonn and she was hampered by the blazing sunshine which softened the previously firm snow on her favorite piste.
But Johnson’s win was overshadowed by one of world sport’s most recognizable faces likely ending her Olympic career in tragic fashion.
Johan Eliasch, the president of the International Ski Federation (FIS) who was watching the race in Cortina, said Vonn’s crash was “tragic, but it’s ski racing I’m afraid.”
“And I can only say thank you for what she has done for our sport because this race has been the talk of the Games and it’s put our sport in the best possible light,” added Eliasch.
Kirsty Coventry, the head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), said in a message to Vonn that “we’re all thinking of you.”
“You are an incredible inspiration, and will always be an Olympic champion,” she added.
Lindsey Vonn shows the gold medals of the Women's Downhill and super-g races, at the World Alpine Ski Championships, in Val d'Isere, France in 2009. (AP)
Vonn had insisted that she could not only compete but win against the world’s best women skiers, some of whom like Aicher are nearly half her age.
Vonn said ahead of the Games that she was planning on also competing in the team combined event on Tuesday and the super-G two days later.
But that now looks unlikely, a potential long lay-off perhaps heralding the end of her comeback to skiing in her early 40s.
“That definitely was the last thing we wanted to see,” Vonn’s sister Karin Kildow said to US broadcaster NBC.
“She always goes 110 percent, there’s never anything less, so I know she put her whole heart into it and sometimes things happen. It’s a very dangerous sport.”
Jacqueline Wiles, the American who finished fourth, just 0.27sec outside the medals, said watching Vonn had been “pretty awful.”
“To watch someone that you care about so much, it really sucks,” she said.
“My heart kind of just broke for her in that moment. But that’s the inherent risk of this sport.”
Vonn retired in 2019 but returned to competition in November 2024 following surgery to partially replace her right knee to end persistent pain and had been in great form before her previous crash in Crans Montana.
She had finished on the podium in every previous World Cup downhill race this season, including two victories in St. Moritz and Zauchensee, and claimed two more top-three finishes in the super-G.
But retirement looms for Vonn following a disastrous end to one of the biggest stories of the Winter Olympics.
