Olympic alpine skiing legend Lindsey Vonn just dropped a brutal honesty bomb about her recovery: nearly half a year after the horrific crash that almost cost her a leg at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, she still has no ACL in her left knee.
Appearing on SportsCenter Friday at Fanatics Fest in New York, the 41-year-old champion said her left leg is “actually healing really nicely.” Then came the gut-punch detail: “I still have no ACL (in my left leg), so I need to get the metal out and fix that.” Her right ankle, meanwhile, remains the “problem child” — still broken, though it doesn’t hurt much.
The February 8 crash in the Olympic downhill was catastrophic. Just nine days after rupturing her left ACL in a World Cup race, Vonn clipped a gate 13 seconds into her run, got thrown violently down the mountain, and suffered a compound fracture and tibial plateau fracture in her left leg plus a broken right ankle. She was airlifted off the course, developed compartment syndrome, and underwent a fasciotomy that doctors say saved the leg. Multiple surgeries followed.
This recovery has been unlike any of the many injuries Vonn has powered through in her career. “The bones don’t heal the same way that ligaments do, and I wasn’t quite used to that,” she explained. She’s been rehabbing at her Park City, Utah home and has already shown her trademark toughness — walking the 2026 Met Gala red carpet without crutches in May, the first time she’d walked on her own since the accident.
Vonn’s update is pure Vonn: no sugarcoating, no self-pity, just the next fight on the list. Metal out. ACL fixed. Keeap going.
