Anticipation took on a very different meaning today at the Cortina d’Ampezzo course. Entering the Olympic downhill final, Lindsey Vonn wanted to prove that her one-week-old ACL injury had nothing on her. Just seconds into the race, though, her crash turned everything into a brutal reality. However, the uncertainty is finally over, as the U.S. Ski and Snowboard has provided an injury update.

Vonn was taken to a hospital in Cortina before being transferred to Treviso’s Ca’Foncello hospital for an emergency surgery. Reportedly, she was then treated by a multidisciplinary team and underwent an orthopedic operation to stabilize a fracture reported in her left leg.

“She’ll [Vonn] be OK, but it’s going to be a bit of a process,” Anouk Patty, chief of sport for U.S. Ski and Snowboard, further said. “This sport’s brutal, and people need to remember when they’re watching (that) these athletes are throwing themselves down a mountain and going really, really fast.”

The 41-year-old pushed out of the gate on the iconic Olympia delle Tofane course, the first of what was meant to be three races at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. Just 13 seconds later, before even reaching the first course marker, her right ski pole clipped into a gate at high speed.

She spun nearly 360 degrees in the air and was violently hurled into the hard-packed snow, tumbling end over end down the slope. She lay motionless, but was conscious and was heard wailing in pain while she was being attended to.

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Notably, Lindsey Vonn’s left leg (the one that ended up being impacted) was already a cause of concern for doctors and fans alike as she entered the Milan Olympics. Just 9 days ago, she had suffered a crash during a World Cup race in Crans-Montana and had her left knee ACL ‘completely ruptured.’

Despite a 100 percent torn ACL that usually takes six to ten months to heal, Vonn entered the games and proved her mettle in the first two Olympic training runs on Friday and Saturday. With a brace in place, she kept weight training, even as several sports medicine experts voiced concerns that she might be risking further damage to her knee.

One such scare emerged on Saturday when her teammate reported that they saw Vonn’s knee briefly cave in during the practice run. But that scare was definitely less than what people experienced today after the crash, especially considering Vonn’s injury history.

She underwent a total knee replacement on her right leg, fitting a titanium knee in 2024. As she rests and nurses her knee, many are praying for her quick recovery.

Prayers have been pouring in for Lindsey Vonn

Breezy Johnson, the skier who took gold in the women’s downhill final, mentioned that she didn’t have much information regarding Vonn’s condition. However, she did not forget to send her best wishes in the meantime.

“I don’t have anything except that her coach said that she was cheering for me in the helicopter. I hope that it’s not too bad. My heart aches for her. It’s such a brutal sport sometimes,” Johnson said.

IOC President Kirsty Coventry shared a heartwarming message for Vonn that read, “Dear Lindsey, we’re all thinking about you. You are an incredible inspiration, and will always be an Olympic champion.”

The 41-year-old was aiming for a glorious comeback in her fifth Olympic appearance. However, things didn’t go as planned.

Apart from Mikaela Shiffrin, who also reacted to Lindsey Vonn’s crash, Vonn’s sister, Karin Kildow, had a brief talk with the reporters where she sent her best wishes to her sister.

“But she really, we were just saying like the man in the arena, like she just dared greatly, and she put it all out there. So it’s really hard to see, but we just really hope she’s okay. So I don’t really know exactly what happened, but you know, I did it did look like a pretty rough fall. So we’re just hoping for the best.”

The incident at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics leaves many questions in mind, especially: What’s next for Lindsey Vonn? But for now, there are positive updates regarding her condition, a ray of hope for fans while they await an official message from the injured legend.