U.S. skiing legend Lindsey Vonn suffered a devastating crash that ended her run at the 2026 Winter Olympics and likely her career. Now, Vonn is opening up about just how serious the injury truly was.
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, Vonn lost control, clipping a gate with her right shoulder and tumbling down the slope awkwardly. The U.S. legend had to be taken to safety by a rescue helicopter.
While she previously indicated that her injury was far more severe than a simple leg break, she opened up about just how severe the injury really was.
In a recent video, Vonn called it “by far the most extreme and painful and challenging injury” that she has ever faced in her life.
“I had a complex tibia fracture, I also fractured my fibular head, tibial plateau – kind of everything was in pieces,” Vonn said in a recent video.
The thing that made the situation so complex, she explained, was due to something called “compartment syndrome.”
“Compartment syndrome is when you have so much trauma to one are aof your body that there’s too much blood and it gets stuck,” Vonn explained. “It basically crushes everything in the compartment. So, all the muscle and nerves and tendons – it all kind of dies.”
As a result, Vonn revealed that her leg was actually at risk of amputation before her doctor saved it by doing what’s called a “fasciotomy,” cutting the leg open from both sides and letting it “breathe.”
“Dr. Tom Hackett saved my leg,” Vonn said. “He saved my leg from being amputated.”
Vonn has previously insisted that her ACL injury had nothing to do with the crash, but she said that the only reason Dr. Hackett was even with her at the time was due to that ACL injury.
“I always talk about ‘everything happens for a reason,’ but if I hadn’t have torn my ACL – which I would have torn anyway with this crash – if I hadn’t have done that, Tom wouldn’t have been there. He wouldn’t have been able to save my leg,” she said. “So, I feel very lucky and grateful for him.”
Vonn still has a long road to recovery ahead of her, but she is obviously grateful that Dr. Hackett saved her leg.
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