Olympic skiing champion Lindsey Vonn revealed Monday through social media that she came dangerously close to losing her leg following a catastrophic accident during the women’s downhill event at the Milan Cortina Olympics.
The American athlete has endured five surgical procedures following a severe left tibia fracture that occurred when she struck a gate and went off course just 13 seconds into her February 8th race.
In her social media statement, Vonn praised Dr. Tom Hackett, the orthopedic surgeon for both herself and Team USA, for his life-saving intervention. Hackett performed an emergency fasciotomy to address compartment syndrome that developed after the crash, a condition where excessive internal pressure from bleeding and swelling can cut off blood circulation and cause permanent damage without immediate treatment.
“When you have so much trauma to one area of your body that there’s too much blood and it gets stuck and it basically crushes everything … all the muscle and nerves and tendons — it all kind of dies,” Vonn explained in an Instagram video. “He (Hackett) kind of filleted it open, so to speak, let it breathe, and he saved me.”
The surgeon’s presence at the Olympics proved crucial, as he was only there due to Vonn’s previous ACL injury before the games began.
“If I hadn’t had done that, Tom wouldn’t have been there. He wouldn’t have been able to save my leg,” she explained. “I feel very lucky and grateful for him.”
Speaking from a hotel room after her hospital discharge, Vonn detailed her medical journey. Her first four operations took place at an Italian medical facility after emergency crews airlifted her from the mountain. She later returned to America on a stretcher aboard an aircraft and immediately underwent a fifth procedure at an undisclosed U.S. hospital.
The skiing legend disclosed that she remains wheelchair-bound and “very much immobile” due to also fracturing her right ankle in the same incident. Her recovery timeline includes at least two months using crutches during rehabilitation.
“Now I will focus on rehab and progressing from a wheelchair to crutches in a few weeks,” she wrote alongside her video message. “It will take around a year for all of the bones to heal and then I will decide if I want to take out all the metal or not, and then go back into surgery and finally fix my ACL.”
The 41-year-old athlete had emerged from retirement with a partially reconstructed right knee and was considered a strong medal candidate before tearing her left ACL during a World Cup race one week prior to the Olympics. Despite the injury, she maintained she could still compete in the games.
Vonn was pursuing her second Olympic gold medal in downhill skiing, having previously claimed victory in Vancouver during 2010. She also holds two Olympic bronze medals.
Despite the disappointing conclusion to her Olympic campaign, Vonn expressed no second thoughts about her decision to compete.
“I’d rather go down swinging than not try at all, and I think what I was able to achieve was more than anyone expected to begin with,” Vonn stated. “I worked really hard to get back and it was so worth it.”
Throughout her distinguished career, Vonn accumulated 84 World Cup victories, ranking second among female competitors. Only her Olympic teammate Mikaela Shiffrin surpasses her record. Two of those victories occurred during this current season.
“It’s going to be a long road. But I always fight and I’ll keep going, no regrets,” Vonn concluded. “It really knocked me down but I’m like Rocky — I’ll keep getting back up.”
