Lindsey Vonn Unsure About Future After Horrific Olympic Injury

Lindsey Vonn is still recovering physically and mentally after her frightening fall at the Winter Olympics. For now, difficult decisions about her future can wait.

The American skier has undergone eight surgeries after suffering a complex tibial fracture in her left leg — an injury that nearly led to amputation — during the women's downhill race on February 8 in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. She needs at least one more surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in the same knee.

So if the 41-year-old does return to racing — and she isn't ready to make that decision — a comeback is at least a year and a half away, Vonn told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday.

“I don’t want to rush to a conclusion or even speculate on what I can do,” Vonn said. “I could retire. I could never race again, and that would be totally fine. But I’m not in an emotional place to make that decision right now.”

Vonn thought she might have been able to walk away into retirement if she had completed a comeback season that rivaled some of the best of her career. She ended a six-year hiatus from the sport largely to compete in Cortina, one of her favorite tracks, and the venue for the Milan Cortina Olympics.

The three-time Olympic medalist, including the 2010 downhill gold, fell just 13 seconds after the start of the race and suffered a complex tibial fracture, shocking the star-studded crowd and ending a season in which she led the World Cup downhill standings and had never finished lower than fourth in any race.

She has come back from various injuries before — she has a titanium prosthetic in her right knee — but this time is different. The pain is different. Eight surgeries are just one short of the total number of operations she had before this injury.

“This is a very different injury in that regard, again, just the severity of the injury and understanding that I could have lost my leg and how bad everything was,” Vonn said. “I can take a lot of pain, but this was extreme. It was nowhere even in the universe of pain of this injury compared to what I’ve experienced before.”

Vonn is making progress in and out of the gym, though not as fast as she would like. She has moved from a wheelchair to crutches — she is tired of both — and next week she will be able to start walking short distances.

‘Tell me I can’t, and I will prove you wrong’

Vonn can walk again, making a trip to New York this week to discuss her support for the “Antibodies for Any Body” education campaign by biopharmaceutical company Invivyd. She also has a vacation planned.

Beyond that, the future is hard to imagine. Vonn said she hasn't spoken with her doctor about what a return to skiing would look like, saying they both prefer to focus on this recovery phase.

“No matter what, nothing will really happen until ’27-28 because I still have one more surgery to remove the metal and replace the ACL. That still needs to happen,” Vonn said. “When I fix the ACL, then that’s another six months, so I have at least, I would say, a year and a half ahead before I can actually come back 100%, even just to train in the gym.”

Vonn knows there could be risks in returning, and family members don't want her to take chances. Just one day after she fell, while she was still in the hospital, her father said her career would be over if it were up to him. Vonn said: “He means well. He forgets the fundamental rule with me is if you don't want me to do something, you should not tell me I can't. Tell me I can't, and I will prove you wrong.”

Vonn has never shied away from risk — she competed at the Olympics just over a week after tearing her ACL — whatever the outcome.

“Downhill is one of the most dangerous sports in the world, and that's a risk I always willingly accepted, and this is the outcome, and I have no regrets,” Vonn said, noting that she did everything she could to prepare fully for the race. “I don't want a do-over.”

But there will come a time when she decides whether she wants to race again. For now, Vonn says she is just focused on getting her leg healthy. Only after that is done can she start thinking about a career that might be over, or not.

“I’m still, like I said, in survival mode that I just want to get through this period and be able to assess where I am in life,” Vonn, who has 84 World Cup victories, second among women behind fellow American Mikaela Shiffrin (110), said. “And figure out what I've done and figure out what could happen and make a decision in a much better place than where I am now.

“I don't want to make a decision now because I think it would be rash and probably too emotional, and I don't want to make a mistake, you know?”