“I do know hard days are coming…” That was Lindsey Vonn’s message after her crash at the 2026 Winter Olympics, where a serious leg injury brought her Olympic dream to an abrupt end. Since then, the skiing legend has undergone 8 surgeries and battled the risk of compartment syndrome. After months of treatment and rehabilitation, however, Vonn gradually made progress and was eventually able to walk on her own. Just when things seemed to be getting better, the 42-year-old now finds herself preparing for another major surgery, nine months after her Olympic crash.

Vonn recently attended the 2026 CFDA Fashion Awards on November 2 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The event gave her another opportunity to speak about her recovery and the long road ahead. During her appearance, she revealed that her ninth surgery is scheduled for this coming Monday, November 9. While she was feeling good at the moment, she admitted that the upcoming operation would be a major one.

“This hopefully will be my last surgery, and this will be my ninth surgery, and I’m looking forward to moving past this,” she said.

The upcoming procedure is expected to involve removing the plates and screws placed in her left leg and repairing her torn ACL. The ligament injury actually happened during a separate crash in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, on January 30, just days before the Olympics. Vonn competed in the Olympic downhill despite the injury, but doctors could not repair her ACL during the earlier operations because of the plates and other hardware needed to stabilize her fractured leg.

She now hopes that once the hardware is removed and the ligament is repaired, she can finally begin a more conventional recovery. Vonn expects the process to take approximately nine months before she feels fully recovered. But another operation also means reopening wounds that she had only recently become comfortable showing.

Vonn recalled attending the L’Oréal show, where she finally felt confident enough to reveal her scars. Now, she faces the prospect of having those same areas opened up again. “It’s ironic because at the L’Oréal show, I finally felt confident enough to show my scars fully, and now I’m going to open them all back up,” she explained. Despite the frustration, she is trying not to let the setback take away from the progress she has made. “So yeah, back to square one, but it’s okay. It happens. It’s life. Move forward,” she added.

While her immediate priority is recovering from the ninth surgery, questions remain about whether Vonn will return to competitive skiing.

Lindsey Vonn is not ready to make a decision about her skiing future

Vonn has not ruled out skiing racing again, but she does not want to make that decision while she is still recovering. She wants to see how her body responds once she is completely healthy and physically fit. “Once I’m 100 percent again, once I really feel physically fit, then I want to see where I’m at and see if I’m still motivated, still see if I’m still capable of skiing,” she explained.

Vonn also admitted that she cannot yet predict how she will feel several months from now, making it difficult to decide whether another comeback is possible. “I feel like I can’t mentally or physically make any decisions now because I just don’t know what I’m gonna feel like in nine months,” she said.

Still, her motivation to ski has not disappeared. Reflecting on her most recent season, Vonn said it was the most enjoyable one of her entire career. “But I will say I’m very motivated. My last season was the most fun I’ve ever had in ski racing in my career,” she added.

For now, Vonn is giving herself the time she needs to recover without putting pressure on her future. Whether she eventually returns to the starting gate or decides that her competitive career has come to an end, she is determined to move forward.