Olympic skiing legend Lindsey Vonn is focusing on recovery after a devastating crash during the 2026 Winter Olympics left her with a severe leg injury and months of rehabilitation ahead.
The 41-year-old athlete shared a new update with fans on Thursday, March 5, posting a video to Instagram that showed her carefully working through rehabilitation exercises.
Vonn Is Taking It ‘One Day at a Time’
The footage captured Vonn lifting weights, performing core workouts and even standing from her wheelchair to place limited weight on her heavily bandaged leg.
“Definitely some hard times but still thankful… still working hard,” she wrote alongside the clip. “The only goal is to get healthy. One day at a time.”
Vonn’s recovery journey began after a frightening crash during the women’s downhill event at the Milan-Cortina Games on Feb. 8.
Just seconds into her run, she clipped a gate and lost control, crashing violently on the course only 13 seconds after leaving the starting gate.
She was airlifted to the hospital where doctors discovered she had suffered a complex tibia fracture.
Vonn Has Had Multiple Surgeries
Over the following days, Vonn underwent four surgeries in an effort to repair the damage and stabilize her leg.
In later updates, the decorated skier revealed the situation had been even more serious than initially known.
According to Vonn, doctors were briefly concerned that the injury could lead to the loss of her leg after she developed compartment syndrome — a dangerous condition caused by severe pressure buildup within muscle tissue.
“After two weeks, I finally made it out of the hospital,” she said in a previous social media update. “It has been quite the journey and by far the most extreme and painful and challenging injury I’ve ever faced in my entire life times one hundred.”
Vonn explained that the force of the crash left her tibia shattered.
“My tibia was in pieces,” she said.
She also credited her longtime physician, Dr. Tom Hackett, with preventing the situation from becoming even more dire.
Fighting back emotion while speaking about the ordeal, she explained that the doctor performed a procedure that ultimately saved her limb.
Vonn Is Staying Positive
“Dr. Tom Hackett saved my leg,” Vonn said. “He saved my leg from being amputated.”
The procedure, known as a fasciotomy, involves surgically opening muscle compartments to relieve pressure and restore blood flow.
Despite the grueling recovery process, Vonn has remained determined to stay positive.
Still, she admitted the emotional toll has been significant.
“Had a pretty hard day yesterday,” she said in another update. “Everything just really hit me hard and I broke down. I know there will be a lot of days like this… the internal mental battle has just begun.”
Even after the crash, Vonn said she had no regrets about competing in the Olympic race.
“My Olympic dream did not finish the way I dreamt it would,” she wrote shortly after the accident. “While yesterday did not end the way I had hoped, and despite the intense physical pain it caused, I have no regrets.”
