The alpine ski legend discussed her injury and recovery in a new Vanity Fair interview and talked about whether she’ll ever return to the slopes.
PARK CITY, Utah — Lindsey Vonn still dreams about the race that nearly killed her, but insists she won’t “close the door” on skiing competitively.
In a new cover story interview with Vanity Fair, the alpine ski legend describes a recurring dream in which she’s back on the Olimpia delle Tofane course at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, racing clean and crossing the finish line triumphant. Then she wakes up.
“I was number one in the world, and potentially on my way to an Olympic medal,” Vonn told the magazine. “Now I’m in a wheelchair.”
The reality of what happened Feb. 8 in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, was far more brutal. Just 13 seconds into her run in the women’s downhill final, Vonn’s right arm caught on a gate, spinning her into the air and sending her bouncing down the slope. Medical crews rushed to her as she screamed in pain. She ultimately suffered a complex tibia fracture, fibular head fracture, tibial plateau fracture and compartment syndrome in her leg.
The injuries set off a harrowing chain of events. According to the Vanity Fair piece, Team USA physician Tom Hackett flew with Vonn by helicopter to the Olympic clinic in Cortina, then made the call to transfer her to a hospital in Treviso, Italy, where a team of 20 doctors and nurses mobilized for surgery. Hours after that first operation, her leg began to swell uncontrollably — a sign of compartment syndrome, a dangerous condition in which mounting pressure restricts blood flow and can cause permanent nerve damage.
“There was a very significant chance that she was going to lose all function of her leg, if not the leg itself,” Hackett told Vanity Fair. He performed an emergency fasciotomy in the middle of the night, cutting into connective tissue to relieve the pressure. Vonn later credited Hackett with saving her leg from amputation.
She underwent a six-hour surgery at the Steadman Clinic in Vail, Colorado, described by Hackett as “the definitive, big-dog surgery.” In total, she had four operations before returning home to Park City, Utah, on March 1, nearly a month after the crash.
The interview was conducted at Vonn’s home, where she spoke candidly about her recovery and her complicated feelings about how the world is choosing to remember her.
“I don’t want people to hang on this crash and be remembered for that,” she said. “What I did before the Olympics has never been done before. I was number one in the standings. No one remembers that I was winning.”
Vonn, 41, had initially retired in 2019 at age 33 after chronic knee injuries convinced her she was done. She returned in November 2024 after a partial knee replacement eliminated the pain that had forced her out. She went on to win a World Cup downhill race in St. Moritz in December 2025, becoming the oldest skier in history to do so. She won again in January in Austria and was atop the downhill standings heading into the Olympics.
Then came Crans-Montana. Nine days before the Olympic downhill, she tore her ACL during a World Cup race in Switzerland and was airlifted off that course as well. Critics demanded she withdraw from the Olympics and yield her spot to another American skier. Vonn refused.
“Everyone said it was reckless and I was taking a spot from somebody else and all this nonsense,” she told Vanity Fair. “I’m not crazy. I know what I can do and what I can’t do.”
Vonn maintained after the crash that her ACL injury played no role in the accident, saying the difference between a clean line and a catastrophic one in downhill skiing can come down to just 5 inches.
Vonn won’t close the door on skiing
Now, weeks into an intensive recovery that involves daily physical therapy, hyperbaric chamber sessions and gym work, Vonn is leaving the door open on one more chapter.
When asked whether she might return to competitive skiing — again — she didn’t rule it out.
“I don’t like to close the door on anything, because you just never know what’s going to happen,” she told Vanity Fair. “I have no idea what my life will be like in two years or three years or four years. I could have two kids by then. I could have no kids and want to race again. I could live in Europe. I could be doing anything.”
She was quick to acknowledge the weight of the current injuries, though. “It’s hard to tell with this injury. It’s so f—ed up,” she said. “I really feel like that was a horrible last run to end my career on.”
Vonn said after the crash she had “no regrets” about competing on a torn ACL, adding: “I wish it ended differently, but I’d rather go down swinging than not try at all.”
“I only made it 13 seconds. But they were a really good 13 seconds.”