No one can ever accuse Lindsey Vonn of not being tough. After a total knee replacement and several years of retirement, she came back and snagged multiple World Cup wins.
Then, at the age of 41, in her final tune-up event for the Olympics, Vonn crashed and tore her ACL. Despite that injury, she was somehow still able to compete in the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.
Unfortunately, she crashed again during the downhill event, shattering her tibia, fibula and ankle.
Lindsey Vonn said shortly after the catastrophic injury that they may have amputated her leg if not for a surgery that the doctor who traveled with her to Italy to monitor her ACL injury performed.
This week, she provided even more details about the aftermath of the crash. Her doctor, Tom Hackett, the head physician for Team USA Ski and Snowboard, also revealed just how grim the situation was after the crash.
Lindsey Vonn and her doctor described the aftermath of the crash
“My leg was broken. My skis were still on. My leg was torqued, and I couldn’t get my skis off. I couldn’t move, and I was yelling for help,” Vonn told Vanity Fair. “I just needed someone to take my skis off.”
After the helicopter airlifted him to a tent on the side of the race course, Dr. Hackett said the scene was chaos. “It was just an awful situation,” he said.
Then, after flying to the official Olympic clinic in Cortina, he said, “Paparazzi were bum-rushing the place, saying that they were friends and part of her PR team.”
While at the clinic, doctors gave Lindsey Vonn painkillers and performed a CT scan.
“Halfway through, I started sweating. I was just in such extreme pain. I screamed at the top of my lungs: Get me out. It just wouldn’t dissipate. It wouldn’t let up. It’s seared into my brain,” she recalled.
At that point, Dr. Hackett decided to transfer Vonn to a hospital in Treviso, Italy. So it was back into the helicopter for her third flight of the day.
After surgery, things only got worse
After surgery, the medical staff put Vonn into a room in the ICU where she fell asleep. Unfortunately, in the middle of the night, she woke up screaming in pain. Her leg was swelling and it wouldn’t stop. She was given “monster amounts of fentanyl, morphine, oxycodone, like every narcotic you can imagine,” according to Hackett. None of it helped. Vonn was suffering from compartment syndrome.
“I’m sure you’ve seen hot dogs or brats on a grill. They get more and more swollen. Then all of a sudden, they burst. They crack. That’s basically what happens with compartment syndrome,” Hackett said. “There was a very significant chance that she was going to lose all function of her leg, if not the leg itself. Best-case scenario in those situations is, you might keep your leg, but it’s going to be useless.”
Vonn said she remembers Dr. Hackett telling her, “Don’t worry, I’m going to save your leg. I got this. I’m scrubbing in.” After four surgeries, she was finally out of danger.
She flew back to America, and on Feb. 20, Hackett performed another six-hour surgery to repair the fracture in her leg. A month after her crash at the Olympics she finally made it home.
Thankfully, Hackett and his team were able to remedy the issue and Vonn is once again on the road to recovery. She is currently off the painkillers and is working with a physical therapist every day.