United States skiing legend Lindsey Vonn suffered a devastating injury after a major crash at the Olympics this week while skiing on a torn ACL. However, she’s now claiming that the ACL injury had nothing to do with the crash.
In the days leading up to the 2026 Winter Olympics, Vonn tore her ACL, but then announced plans to compete anyway in what figures to be her final Olympics. However, things did not go according to plan.
Just a few seconds into her run at the Olympics on Sunday, Vonn lost control, clipping a gate with her right shoulder and tumbling down the slope awkwardly. As a result of the crash, Vonn had to be taken to safety by a rescue helicopter for the second time in nine days.
The crash led to a lot of commentary and speculation that Vonn’s ACL injury played a role in her crash. However, in a post on Instagram, she set the record straight as she said that her torn ACL “had nothing to do” with the crash.
“Yesterday my Olympic dream did not finish the way I dreamt it would. It wasn’t a story book ending or a fairy tail, it was just life. I dared to dream and had worked so hard to achieve it. Because in Downhill ski racing the difference between a strategic line and a catastrophic injury can be as small as 5 inches,” Vonn wrote in a post on Instagram.
“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. My ACL and past injuries had nothing to do with my crash whatsoever.”
Vonn revealed that she suffered a complex tibia fracture that will require multiple surgeries to fix properly, but she made it clear that she has no regrets about her decision to compete at 41 years old, just days after an ACL injury.
“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. Knowing I stood there having a chance to win was a victory in and of itself. I also knew that racing was a risk. It always was and always will be an incredibly dangerous sport,” Vonn wrote in her post.
“And similar to ski racing, we take risks in life. We dream. We love. We jump. And sometimes we fall. Sometimes our hearts are broken. Sometimes we don’t achieve the dreams we know we could have. But that is the also the beauty of life; we can try.”
“I tried. I dreamt. I jumped,” she added. “I hope if you take away anything from my journey it’s that you all have the courage to dare greatly. Life is too short not to take chances on yourself. Because the only failure in life is not trying.”
“I believe in you, just as you believed in me,” she concluded.
Vonn will undoubtedly go down as a legend in the sport, even if her last ride did not go the way she had hoped.
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