Lindsey Vonn crashes in Olympic downhill at Cortina, breaks left leg

Lindsey Vonn crashed on 8 February 2026 during the women's Olympic downhill in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. She fell only seconds after leaving the start gate and was airlifted by helicopter from the course to a hospital in Treviso.

Vonn, a former Olympic champion who had returned to racing after retiring, was competing on a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL, a key knee ligament) in her left knee. She had ruptured it about nine days earlier. She said the ligament injury had nothing to do with the crash itself.

She described the new injury as a complex fracture of the tibia, the main lower-leg bone. Doctors operated to stabilise the left leg, and reports said she underwent two procedures and was in stable condition. She was expected to need further surgeries to recover fully.

Her American teammate Breezy Johnson won the downhill gold. The crash ended Vonn's Olympic comeback and began the long recovery that later led to more operations on the same leg.