Lindsey Vonn has shared her feelings after her serious crash in Cortina d'Ampazzo on Sunday morning, 13 seconds after starting her downhill, which caused her to be airlifted and resulted in a broken leg, and explained that "my ACL and past injuries had nothing to do with my crash whatsoever".
"In Downhill ski racing the difference between a strategic line and a catastrophic injury can be as small as 5 inches. I was simply 5 inches too tight on my line when my right arm hooked inside of the gate, twisting me and resulted in my crash", she wrote on Instagram. She has undergone operations and will undergo more surgery to fix "a complex tibia fracture that is currently stable".
Vonn is the most decorated female skier in history, who retired from the sport in 2019 due to injuries but returned in 2024 and attempted her last Olympic Games at 41, adding two more victories to a total of 84 World Cup race victories.
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"Yesterday my Olympic dream did not finish the way I dreamt it would. It wasn't a story book ending or a fairy tail, it was just life. I dared to dream and had worked so hard to achieve it.
"While yesterday did not end the way I had hoped, and despite the intense physical pain it caused, I have no regrets. Standing in the starting gate yesterday was an incredible feeling that I will never forget. Knowing I stood there having a chance to win was a victory in and of itself."
Lindsey Vonn responds to criticism following her Olympic attempt
Vonn has been criticised by some people for competing only nine days after rupturing her anterior cruciate ligament, a serious injury that increased the risk of even more serious injuries if she didn't rest. Some have said her choice was "irresponsible". In her Instagram post, she responds to those criticisms and hopes that people take a lesson from her story:
"I also knew that racing was a risk. It always was and always will be an incredibly dangerous sport. And similar to ski racing, we take risks in life. We dream. We love. We jump. And sometimes we fall.
"Sometimes our hearts are broken. Sometimes we don't achieve the dreams we know we could have. But that is the also the beauty of life; we can try. I tried. I dreamt. I jumped.
"I hope if you take away anything from my journey it's that you all have the courage to dare greatly. Life is too short not to take chances on yourself. Because the only failure in life is not trying."