One week ago, Lindsey Vonn (USA) tore her ACL at a World Cup event in Cans Montana, Switzerland. Today in Italy, she participated in the women’s downhill training ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics. It was her first official Alpine skiing run since sustaining the injury.
The 41-year-old recorded the 11th fastest time (+1.39), which has no medal implications, no bearing on the Olympic Games themselves. That said, in order for Vonn to compete in the downhill medal event in Cortina, she had to partake in at least one official training. She’s cleared that checkpoint, and as long as she doesn’t endure a physical setback, her Winter Olympic dreams can come true.
To prioritize her recovery, Vonn herself bypassed her usual media commitments following the session, but coach Aksel Lund Svindal told reporters he was encouraged by what he saw from Vonn.
“She was smart, she didn’t go all in. She made a mistake on the bottom, but the rest looked like good skiing. No big risk,” Svindal said. “To me, it looked symmetrical. I didn’t see any differences [between her] right and left [side] and that’s what we were looking for today, so it was good.”
As for what that means for Vonn’s medal hopes?
“From what I saw today, I think she can. It’s gonna be hard, but she could possibly bring that [performance] on Sunday.”
Vonn has the opportunity to go for gold in Sunday’s downhill at 5:30 a.m. ET, which streams live on Peacock and NBCOlympics.com.
American Jackie Wiles posted the quickest training time in the 47-racer field on Friday, clocking in at 1:38.94.
