Lindsey Vonn was chasing one last Olympic dream at 41. She pushed through pain, even racing with a ruptured ACL at the Winter Olympics. But on the course, disaster struck. She crashed hard. In the weeks that followed, she had at least 4 surgeries. Now, two weeks later, finally out of the hospital, she revealed how close she came to losing her leg! Yet, she found hope in someone who had experienced the same kind of life-changing moment.

“Lindsey this is exactly what happened to me almost 20 years ago when I was competing at Crested Butte in the Telemark Extreme Freeski Comp,” E.J. Poplawski commented on Vonn’s Instagram post.

“I blew everything in my knee apart, including the popliteal artery. I had compartment syndrome. I was seven minutes from dead when they got me to the hospital. I had no idea that I was gonna lose my leg when they knocked me out on the plane ride to the hospital.”

It happened on March 25, 2006, when Poplawski’s ski broke on a cliff landing during the U.S. Telemark Extreme Freeskiing Championships at Crested Butte.

“I woke up five days later, and my leg was amputated 4 inches above the knee. I was devastated to say the least,” Poplawski recalled.

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“I still ski, Telemark ski, and snowboard. I’m so glad the doctors were able to save your knee and your foot. It’s gonna be a very long journey, but you will overcome.”

Because Poplawski conquered it, too!

In two and a half years, Poplawski became the first-ever above-knee amputee to race on two skis. He even took bronze in adaptive snocross. For Lindsey Vonn, it was the perfect timing to read his words.

These hopeful words came after Vonn shared her own story on Instagram, talked about the seriousness of her injuries, and her journey to recovery.

In a video posted from a hotel, she explained what happened after her crash on February 8 during the women’s downhill.

“Dr. Tom Hackett saved my leg,” Vonn revealed. “He saved my leg from being amputated.”

The crash resulted in multiple fractures in her left leg, a torn ACL, and a fractured right ankle. The compartment syndrome complications required an emergency six-hour surgical procedure known as fasciotomy to relieve the pressure and save the tissue. Intra-operative blood loss prolonged her stay at the hospital longer than expected and required transfusion. But her leg was saved.

“If I hadn’t torn my ACL – which I would have torn anyways with this crash – if I hadn’t had done that, Tom wouldn’t have been there; he wouldn’t have been able to save my leg,” Vonn added.

“I feel very lucky and grateful for him.”

For now, Lindsey Vonn is immobile and using a wheelchair, but she hopes to move to crutches in a few weeks. The fractures in her leg will take about a year to fully heal, after which she will undergo ACL reconstruction.

“It will be a long road but I’ll get there,” she exclaimed. “I’d rather go down swinging than not try at all.”

But while she drew motivation from Poplawski, not everyone was supportive.

Lindsey Vonn defies critics and proves her Olympic comeback was worth it

Skeptics wondered why Lindsey Vonn was skiing at 41 with a torn ACL and said she should have relinquished her Olympic spot to a younger, fitter competitor. But Vonn, who was in her fifth Olympics after a knee replacement and a brief retirement, declined to let that criticism define her. On Saturday, she responded on Instagram.

She “wanted to recap my season for all the haters out there that didn’t understand what it means to earn your spot.”

It also included highlights of her races at the World Cup at St. Moritz, Val d’Isere, Zauchensee, and Tarvisio, where she finished on the podium in all five downhill races she had entered, and two of them were victories (St. Moritz and Zauchensee).

Vonn had no regrets even when she crashed at the end of January, damaging her ACL.

“It wasn’t all for nothing… it wasn’t a dream… although sitting in this hospital bed it seems far away now… But I did it,” she wrote. “I came back. I won. I showed up and did what most thought was impossible at my age with a partial knee replacement. These memories I’ll have forever, and I’m grateful for every one of them. Every moment was amazing. Every moment was worth it.”

Her fellow athletes, too, supported her decision.

“It’s her decision [to race at the Olympics],” Italy’s Federica Brignone said. “If it’s your body, then you decide what to do, whether to race or not. It’s not up to others. Only you.”

Vonn has a tale not necessarily of a crash, but of motivation that can be drawn upon, never giving up.