CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Lindsey Vonn’s pursuit of an against-all-odds Olympic medal ended Sunday in a devastating crash only 13.4 seconds into the downhill final.
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Skiing in a brace just nine days after rupturing the ACL in her left knee, Vonn did not finish the final at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. She was attempting to become the oldest Alpine skier, man or woman, to win an Olympic medal.
Under ideal, bluebird conditions at the craggy top of the famed Tofane course in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Vonn pushed off as the 13th woman to go down the 1.6-mile-long course, with 23 competitors waiting their turn behind her.
Vonn tapped her poles together three times before pulling out of the gate. Before reaching the first marker of the course, however, she crashed and tumbled, hitting her head in the process until coming to a merciful stop. Screams of pain could be heard on the broadcast.
Lindsey Vonn is transported by helicopter from the course in Cortina d’Ampezzo.Francois-Xavier Marit / AFP – Getty Images
The crowd waiting at the bottom of the hill, which included her family, fell eerily silent, with lips pursed and arms crossed.
Within minutes, medical personnel had surrounded Vonn and began securing her to a stretcher. Zipped into a red bag, Vonn was airlifted off the course. Half an hour after a buzzing crowd at the finish line had expected to see Vonn for the first time, they watched as a helicopter passed over their heads, airlifting her away.
The scene was difficult to square with the seemingly invincible show of strength — including finishing with the third-fastest time on Saturday in training — she had put on since injuring her knee barely a week earlier. And the result was all the more brutal because the course is Vonn’s favorite on which to race.
American Breezy Johnson, running sixth, had taken the early lead with her time of 1:36.1.
The downhill was already one of the signature events of Alpine skiing, a can’t-look-away showcase as women carve down mountains, around curves and over jumps, pushing 80 mph. And Vonn was already, without hyperbole, the biggest star of these Olympics. Yet Sunday’s competition in Cortina, Italy, drew even more intrigue than is typical as the world awaited the answer to whether Vonn could somehow medal only nine days after she crashed and ruptured a ligament crucial to stabilizing her left knee.
Vonn was attempting to win the downhill 16 years after she did it at the Vancouver Olympics. It remains the only time an American woman has won the event at the Olympics. She had won two Olympic bronze medals in her career, as well, in downhill in 2018 and super-G in 2010.
Team USA fans react after watching Lindsey Vonn crash out on Sunday.Mattia Ozbot / Getty Images
Vonn faced the twin challenges of health and rust when she announced in 2024 she was coming out of retirement five years after injuries had driven her into retirement. Yet a robotically-assisted surgery that partially replaced her right knee gave Vonn a surge of confidence and what she called her most consistently healthy season in a decade. This season, her health helped her finish on the podium in all five World Cup races in which she competed, including two victories, making her the oldest ever to win on the prestigious skiing circuit. Those performances seemed to put an end to questions about whether her ambitions for a medal in Cortina were real or a quixotic quest.
But her crash in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, late last month, which required an airlift, cast doubt on her ability to again topple the world’s best skiers.
Vonn did not undergo surgery, however, and wore a brace while going through two successful tests of the knee during training runs Friday and Saturday, when she reached 78 mph.
In the final, Vonn had the advantage of familiarity. She has called Cortina’s course her favorite to race and a major factor why she wanted to mount the comeback for the Olympics at all. Of her 84 World Cup victories, 12 have come in Cortina. It is not the favorite course for everyone, however. Johnson’s 2022 Olympic hopes were dashed when she crashed and hurt a knee here, and Mikaela Shiffrin also injured ligaments in a knee during a 2023 crash.
Yet the final Vonn also required her to push her knee further than in either of her two training runs, when she could be seen pulling back around some turns so as not to exert too much strain before the main event.
ACL injuries have long been among the most devastating in sports, typically requiring at least six months of strenuous recovery. That she could compete in the Olympics just over a week after a tear had drawn some incredulity, such as from a doctor known for his social media account analyzing sports injuries.
“My ACL was fully functioning until last Friday,” Vonn responded Saturday. “Just because it seems impossible to you doesn’t mean it’s not possible. And yes, my ACL is 100% ruptured. Not 80% or 50%. It’s 100% gone.”
Within seconds, Sunday, so was her incredible attempt to medal.
Andrew Greif reported from Milan and Molly Hunter reported from Cortina d’Ampezzo.
