Eric Bolte-Imagn Images
Lindsey Vonn made the bold decision to compete in the Winter Olympics a little over a week after she tore her ACL during a race. She ended up suffering an even more devastating injury while skiing in Milano Cortina, but she revealed her preexisting ailment may have actually prevented her leg from being amputated while providing an update on her recovery.
In 2002, Lindsey Vonn made her Winter Olympics debut while skiing for the United States in the slalom and combined events in Salt Lake City. She failed to medal that year and also missed the podium when she headed to Torino in 2006, but she secured a gold in the downhill and a bronze in the Super-G in Vancouver in 2010.
Competitive skiing is not a sport for the faint of heart, and one of the many injuries she suffered during her career forced her to sit out when the Olympics headed to Sochi in 2014. She cited her history on that front when she announced her retirement in 2019, a year after earning bronze in the downhill in PyeongChang, and it seemed safe to assume she was done competing on that stage when she was not a member of the American delegation that headed to Beijing in 2022.
However, Vonn announced her plans for a comeback a couple of years later and was able to punch her ticket to the 2026 Winter Olympics at the age of 41. Her status was thrust into doubt when she tore her ACL at the end of January, and while she valiantly overcame that setback, she found herself dealing with an even more brutal one after breaking her leg.
She’s facing a lengthy road to recovery before it heals, but it turns out things could have been much, much worse.
Lindsey Vonn says her leg may have been amputated if not for a surgery performed by the doctor who traveled with her to Italy to monitor her ACL injury
Plenty of people questioned Vonn’s decision to ski at the Olympics with a torn ACL, but she did so under the guidance of a team of medical professionals who gave her the green light to compete. That includes Tom Hackett, the Colorado-based orthopedic surgeon who works with Team USA’s skiing and snowboard teams in addition to the Rockies.
Hackett made the trek to Milano Cortina to monitor Vonn’s ACL injury, and he was subsequently able to leap to her aid when she fractured the tibia in her left leg in a crash during the women’s downhill that led to her being airlifted from the course on February 8th.
On Monday, Vonn provided an update on her recovery after being released from the hospital while shedding light on the severity of her setback, which she described as “the most extreme and challenging and painful injury I’ve ever faced.”
Vonn revealed the damage was compounded by compartment syndrome, an incredibly dangerous condition that involves the pressure in your muscles building up to potentially fatal levels due to blood flow stemming from catastrophic injuries like the one she suffered.
The skier praised Hackett for jumping into action and performing a fasciotomy on her leg, the procedure where “he filleted it open” to relieve the pressure. She noted there was a very good chance the limb would have been amputated if he hadn’t acted as quickly as he did, adding there may have been a different outcome if he hadn’t already been assigned to attend to her ACL issue.
Vonn still has a while to go until her leg (as well as the right ankle she broke) is fully healed, but it sounds like the ACL tear was a blessing in disguise.