Snowboarding icon Vonn cried in anguish and ache after her terrible fall excessive up the course days after sustaining an ACL damage.
Printed On 8 Feb 2026
Lindsey Vonn’s Winter Olympic dream resulted in screams of ache after she crashed out of the ladies’s downhill, failing in her audacious bid to medal in her favoured self-discipline on the Milan-Cortina Video games.
The American’s teammate and world champion, Breezy Johnson, gained the race to assert gold on Sunday.
Germany’s Emma Aicher, simply 0.04 seconds slower, took the silver medal, and Italy’s residence favorite Sofia Goggia needed to accept bronze, in accordance with provisional outcomes.
Johnson’s Olympic title, on Cortina d’Ampezzo’s sunlit Olimpia delle Tofane piste, got here precisely a yr after she gained world championship gold at Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria.
American star Vonn had been making an attempt to assert her fourth Olympic medal regardless of struggling a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee a few week in the past, however her race ended early in Cortina d’Ampezzo.
She cried in anguish and ache after her terrible fall excessive up the course, medical workers surrounding the distraught 41-year-old on the Olimpia delle Tofane piste, the place she has loved a lot success up to now.
The 2010 Olympic downhill champion hit the agency snow face – first after simply 13 seconds of her descent. She then rolled down the slope together with her skis nonetheless connected, which may doubtless trigger additional critical harm to her knee.
Vonn’s Olympic dream now lies in tatters after her courageous effort to realize the seemingly inconceivable, an try which ended together with her being taken away in a helicopter as followers within the stands saluted her with loud applause.
One of many world’s most recognisable sports activities faces and an alpine snowboarding icon, Vonn has insisted that she couldn’t solely compete however win in opposition to the world’s greatest feminine skiers, a few of whom, like Aicher, are practically half her age.
Vonn mentioned forward of the video games that she was planning on additionally competing within the workforce mixed occasion on Tuesday and the super-G two days later.
However that now appears to be like unlikely, a possible lengthy layoff maybe heralding the tip of her comeback to snowboarding in her early 40s.
Vonn retired in 2019 however returned to competitors in November 2024 following surgical procedure to partially substitute her proper knee to finish persistent ache.
Vonn had completed on the rostrum in each earlier World Cup downhill race this season, together with two victories in St Moritz and Zauchensee, and claimed two extra top-three finishes within the Tremendous-G.
However retirement looms for Vonn following a disastrous finish to one of many greatest tales of the Winter Olympics.
