MILAN — No matter how Lindsey Vonn finishes Sunday morning, she’s already a champion. Just nine days removed from a devastating accident that completely tore her left ACL, Vonn skied the challenging women’s downhill race in Cortina, Milan, under pristine blue Italian skies and performed better than anyone expected a week ago.
Starting in 13th place in the 36-race race, Vonn suffered an almost immediate wreck as he stormed out of the gate at midday facing the 2,572-metre long Olympia Delle Tofane course. Below, everyone watched quietly.
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Vonn lay on the ice for a long time and her screams can be heard on camera.
Vonn’s fellow American Breezy Johnson recovered from early struggles to take the early lead in the race with a time of 1 minute 36.10 seconds, starting in sixth place.
Sunday was the final act of Vonn’s remarkable journey, with its sharp twists and crazy turns to match any downhill course. Vonn retired in 2019 after winning three Olympic medals in the first part of her career, and while her spirit remained strong, her body had broken down. During her career, she won more World Cups than any woman in history, but by the time she retired, those podiums were just a memory. Vonn, who can’t even hike short distances without pain, has resigned herself to life off the mountain, pursuing everything from reality TV stardom to philanthropy.
In 2024, she chose to undergo a partial knee replacement in the hope of being free of debilitating pain for the rest of her life. But something amazing happened: Vaughn realized the pain, all pain, was gone from her troubled knee. An idea formed in her mind: Why not go back to the slopes and run again?
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“I really thought I was retiring in 2019 and that was it,” Vaughn said recently. “I had built a great life and I was really happy. But after the switch, I knew things were really different. My body felt great and I just kept pushing myself further and further to see what I was capable of, and racing seemed like the logical next step.”
She spent the entire run into the 2022 Beijing Olympics in a state of mild frustration, hearing from friends and other skiers how the mountain was made for her talent. So the fact that the 2026 Olympics will be held in Cortina d’Ampezzo – the site of her first World Cup podium and 11 more since, including six wins – is a win for Vonn. She would attempt a comeback unlike any other in the history of skiing.
“If the Olympics hadn’t been held in Cortina, I don’t think I would have attempted this comeback,” Vonn said. “If it had been anywhere else, I might have said it wasn’t worth it. But for me, there’s something special about Cortina that always brings me back, and brings me back for the last time.”
Right out of the gate, Vaughn faced criticism about her motives, her selfishness, and even her mental state. In one of the more benign criticisms, Olympic gold medalist Franz Kramer declared “she’s completely crazy.”
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But Vonn just kept skiing, and soon, she started climbing the ranks in World Cup events. She exceeded the standards by which potential Olympic team members are judged by the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, first to the podium and then to two World Cup titles.
Along the way, she went from a cute story and the centerpiece of NBC’s Olympic coverage to a legitimate medal threat. Vonn was sixth in the World Cup standings just a week before the Olympics, and she seemed on the verge of a story that defied even fairy tales.
Then: disaster. Just a week before the opening ceremony, on a slope in Switzerland that had already seen several wrecks, Vonn went off the track and hit a barrier. She hobbled to her feet, the pain evident on her face, and needed to be airlifted off the court. Soon after, doctors told her she had a complete tear of her left anterior cruciate ligament. Vonn’s comeback in the Olympics seemed like it would be a great story, but ultimately an unfinished one.
But as the saying goes, Lindsey Vonn has a body like no other. On Tuesday, four days after the crash and two days before her first scheduled downhill workout, Vonn announced that, yes, she had a complete tear of her ACL, but no, she was not withdrawing from the Olympics.
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“Obviously, that’s not what I was hoping for,” Vaughn said. “I’ve been working really hard to go into these Olympics in a completely different position. I knew what my chances were before the crash and I knew my chances were different than they are today, but I know there’s still a chance and as long as I get the chance, I’m going to try.”
She later posted videos of herself lifting weights and jumping on a knee without an ACL and fired back at social media analysis of her knee and her motivations.
So when Sunday morning dawned in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Vonn had the chance to work a miracle. That’s what she did, just skiing into the starting gate. Everything that follows is just a flourish on the symphony.
