Imago
Credits – Instagram / @lindseyvonn
Imago
Credits – Instagram / @lindseyvonn
A comeback of epic proportions and the chance to potentially win another Olympic medal, but few expected it to end with Lindsey Vonn crumpling on the snow in immense pain. That’s exactly what happened, and five surgeries later, the 41-year-old is recovering at home, and at a rather rapid rate, as evidenced by her constant updates. But it seems that Vonn needs to go under the knife for one more surgery in the next few months.
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The three-time Olympic medalist confirmed this in an interview with Glass Half-Full host Calvin Melvin, where she discussed everything from her comeback to her recovery. And there, Vonn revealed that she has not one but potentially two surgeries still left on her dance card.
“Yep, and I need another one,” Vonn said when Melvin asked if she had had five surgeries in two months. “So in probably the fall I’ll, my bone will be healed. We’ll take all the metal out, um, and then, then we’ll fix the ACL. So I still have no ACL right now.”
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While she may have joked about it during the interview, Lindsey Vonn came incredibly close to losing her left leg a little over 13 seconds after she flew down the slope at the 2026 Winter Olympics. The American icon suffered what can only be described as a horrific crash, shattering several sections of her left leg.
That includes her tibia, fibula, and ankle, but the fractures were only a small part, as she developed what is known as “compartment syndrome.” It is a serious medical condition where pressure builds up to dangerous levels inside a muscle “compartment” (a group of muscles, nerves, and blood vessels wrapped in a tight, inelastic layer called fascia). If not diagnosed and treated rapidly, compartment syndrome leads to permanent damage in a person’s limb and even potentially amputation to prevent the infection from spreading.
But thanks to the presence of Team USA’s doctor, Tom Hackett, that was prevented, but Vonn had to have four surgeries in Italy, spending countless hours in the hospital.
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She eventually returned to the US and had to have one more surgery, and has since been recovering, unable to walk, which is what Lindsey Vonn described as one of the hardest parts of her injury, aside from the surgeries and the pain.
“I mean, I think the hardest part was the pain and the, the surgeries, and then, yeah, probably the first three weeks, those were the really the hardest,” Vonn explained. “And then once I kinda was able to move and get in a wheelchair and kinda be a little bit more independent, I felt better, but I’m really, really looking forward to being able to walk on my own.”
But while her physical recovery continues, Lindsey Vonn is just as focused on how this moment fits into the broader context of her career.
Lindsey Vonn doesn’t want the crash to be her whole legacy
Because after retiring in 2019, then returning in 2025 and qualifying for the Olympics, Vonn’s comeback may eventually rank as among the greatest ever by an athlete. Unfortunately, even then, the conversation around her comeback has increasingly shifted toward the crash and its aftermath. That’s even though the 41-year-old made history, finishing on the podium in all five World Cup downhill races before the Olympics.
Because that made her the oldest skier to win a World Cup race, even earning a spot on Team USA’s 2026 Winter Olympics team. But unfortunately, people across the internet have largely ignored that and instead focused on the way it ended. And that’s exactly what Vonn has been worried about, she told Melvin.
“In some ways I do,” Vonn revealed when asked if she thinks her comeback got overshadowed by the crash. “I mean, I’ve been in my home, so I haven’t, I don’t know what the real world is saying or thinking or feeling. Uh, I think there was so much, um, at least on social from what I could tell, it was a lot about the crash and, and it just kinda stayed about the crash.
“And I don’t want that to be my legacy at all because I was having such an amazing season doing things that no one else has ever done, and I was so proud of that. And I don’t want that to be washed away, you know? I don’t want 13 seconds to define my career ’cause it’s so much more than that.”
And it most definitely is more than that, which is exactly what Melvin said, but for Vonn, what she desires most is closure. Her comeback, after all, ended on a horribly sour note, and she admitted she wasn’t happy with that, which eventually led her to say.
“And I never got to, I never got a final run, I never got to say goodbye, I never got, like, any sort of closure whatsoever, that I think it leaves the door slightly open to, I don’t know, maybe I would do one more race to say goodbye, or maybe I w- maybe I’ll race again,” Vonn added.
“I don’t know. I don’t know the answer to that question because I know I’ll be happy if I don’t ski race again. That’s no question. But I don’t know. It might be fun to do one more, one more run. We’ll see.”
For now, though, that decision can wait. The immediate focus remains on getting through the final surgery and completing a recovery that has already tested her limits. And if there is one more run left, it will come only after that, on her own terms, with nothing left unresolved.
Written by
Edited by
Firdows Matheen