Lindsey Vonn says she almost had leg amputated after Winter Olympics crash - 'Most extreme and painful and challenging injury I’ve ever faced'

Lindsey Vonn suffered a left leg fracture during a crash at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics and had to be airlifted to hospital. She has since undergone multiple surgeries and revealed on Monday that she almost lost her left leg as a result of her injuries. She described her crash as "definitely not the way I wanted to end my Olympics".

Lindsey Vonn says she almost had her left leg amputated after her crash at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

In a video posted on Instagram on Monday, the 41-year-old explained that the fracture to her left leg she suffered during the crash in the women's downhill had severe consequences, namely compartment syndrome, which could have resulted in her leg needing to be amputated.

The National Health Service defines compartment syndrome as "increase in pressure inside a muscle, which restricts blood flow and causes pain."

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"When you have so much trauma to one area of your body so that there’s too much blood and it gets stuck and it basically crushes everything," Vonn said.

Vonn, an Olympic gold medal winner, credited Dr. Tom Hackett - an orthopaedic surgeon who works with Team USA - for saving her leg.

"He did what’s called a fasciotomy. He cut open both sides of my leg and kind of filleted it open, so to speak, let it breathe and he saved me," she said.

Vonn was competing at the Winter Olympics just nine days after rupturing her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).

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But despite hopes being high she might be able to do the unthinkable, in the early part of her run Vonn was sent into a high-speed spin after getting her right arm caught in a gate, and the landing left her with a "complex tibia fracture" that required multiple surgeries. She was airlifted to hospital shortly afterwards.  

However, Vonn says it was a stroke of luck that because of her ACL tear, Hackett was on hand to treat her leg fracture.

"I always talk about ‘everything happens for a reason’ but if I hadn’t torn my ACL – which I would’ve torn anyway with this crash – Tom wouldn’t have been there to save my leg so I feel very lucky and grateful for him," she said.

She underwent multiple surgeries in Italy and has since been transported back to the US.

In her Instagram post, Vonn said she is finally able to leave hospital after almost two weeks in medical care.

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She explained that she was in hospital for longer than she expected because of low haemoglobin levels as a result of blood loss from the surgeries she had, needing a blood transfusion to help her recover.

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Vonn described her injury as "by far the most extreme and painful and challenging injury I’ve ever faced in my entire life, times 100."

And although she is in a wheelchair now – she revealed she also broke her right ankle in the crash – and expects to be on crutches for two months, Vonn said she is going to take her recovery "one step at a time".

"I can’t tell you how painful it’s been. It’s definitely not the way I wanted to end my Olympics," Vonn said as she held back tears. "But it’s been really inspiring to watch my team-mates."

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