What To Know
- Olympic skiing champion Lindsey Vonn underwent her ninth surgery of the year to repair damage to her left leg.
- Vonn suffered the injuries in a high-speed crash at the 2026 Milan Winter Olympics, shortly after rupturing her ACL.
- Surgeons planned to remove hardware from her tibia and reconstruct her ACL, with recovery expected to take another six to nine months.
Lindsey Vonn is heading back to the operating room for her ninth surgery of the year.
The 42-year-old Olympic skiing champion underwent a scheduled procedure to repair complex damage to her left leg, which stemmed from the injuries she suffered during the 2026 Milan Winter Olympics.
Vonn’s Olympic heartbreak began just a week prior to the Games when she ruptured her ACL during a World Cup race. She refused to let the setback stop her from competing and took to the slopes for the downhill event on February 8, where a tragic course snag with a ski pole caused a high-speed crash.
The accident required Vonn to be airlifted from the course to a hospital in Treviso, Italy, where she underwent four initial emergency surgeries to stabilize her leg before flying back to the United States for a continuous series of operations over the past nine months.
While Vonn has managed to stay active during her recovery — attending award shows, working out, and making her runway debut at Paris Fashion Week, for example — the procedure marks the next step in her rehabilitation.
Vonn nervously told followers in an Instagram video ahead of the operation that her surgical team will remove the hardware currently holding her tibia together and finally reconstruct her torn ACL.
“I’ve been waiting all of these nine months so my bone could heal and we could fix the ACL,” Vonn said in the video. While she admitted that removing the plates and screws leaves bone holes that will require another six to nine months of standard ACL recovery, the five-time Olympian remains hopeful.
Celebrities and fans from all over the world expressed their support for Vonn on her video. One user commented: “Every time I blow out an ACL, my recovery gets longer. The fact that you can do this and still be at a 6-9month recovery time just shows us how much of a superhero athlete you are! Go get em Linds!”
Meanwhile, Modern Family actress Sofia Vergara commented, “Thinking of you!!,” while Charlize Theron wrote, “Thinking of you, girl” with a heart emoji. Fellow Olympian Shawn Johnson also left a comment under Vonn’s video, writing, “You’ve got this lady!!!!! Prayers for healing!!!”
Vonn is supported by her boyfriend, Matthieu Bailet, and expressed optimism that this will mark her final operation as she continues her journey toward a full recovery.