How is Lindsey Vonn doing? Skiing legend breaks a leg in comeback try

Lindsey Vonn’s defiant bid to win the Winter Olympic downhill at the age of 41, on a rebuilt right knee and a badly injured left knee, ended Sunday in a frightening crash that left her with a broken leg and saw her taken to safety by a rescue helicopter for the second time in nine days.

Vonn lost control within moments of leaving the start house, clipping a gate with her right shoulder and pinwheeling down the slope before ending up awkwardly on her back, her skis crisscrossed below her and her screams ringing out soon after medical personnel arrived. She was treated for long, anguished minutes as a hush fell over the crowd waiting far below at the finish line.

She was strapped to a gurney and flown away, possibly ending the skier’s storied career. She was taken to a clinic in Cortina, then transferred to a larger hospital in Treviso, a two-hour drive to the south.

She was being “treated by a multidisciplinary team” and “underwent an orthopedic operation to stabilize a fracture reported in her left leg,” the Ca’ Foncello hospital said in a statement. The U.S. Ski Team said Vonn was “in stable condition and in good hands with a team of American and Italian physicians.”

Breezy Johnson, Vonn’s teammate, became only the second American woman to win the Olympic downhill after Vonn did it 16 years ago. The 30-year-old Johnson held off Emma Aicher of Germany and Italy’s Sofia Goggia on a bittersweet day for the team.

Vonn had family in the stands, including her father, Alan Kildow, who stared down at the ground while his daughter was being treated after just 13 seconds on the course where she holds a record 12 World Cup titles. Others in the crowd, including rapper Snoop Dogg, watched quietly as the star skier was finally taken off the course. Fellow American star Mikaela Shiffrin posted a broken heart emoji on social media.

Vonn’s crash was “tragic, but it’s ski racing,” said Johan Eliasch, president of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation.

“I can only say thank you for what she has done for our sport,” he said, “because this race has been the talk of the Games and it’s put our sport in the best possible light.”

The crash crumbled the 41-year-old’s Olympic comeback dream, which she pushed ahead in pursuing just over a week after she tore her ACL.

Vonn initially retired from skiing in 2019, but she announced her comeback to the sport in later 2024. Her appearance at the Milan Cortina Games comes 24 years after she made her Olympic debut at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games and 16 years after winning her last gold medal in Vancouver.