'Had nothing to do with my crash': Lindsey Vonn shares emotional Instagram post after devastating Milano Cortina exit

Lindsey Vonn has denied her ACL or past injuries played a role in her devastating crash in an emotional and powerful social media post.

The superstar American crashed out of Milano Cortina and fractured her leg, which was already missing an ACL, in an ugly incident early in her run in the women's downhill before her American teammate and reigning world champion Breezy Johnson won gold.

Vonn was one of the stories of the Games before it began, competing at age 41 just nine days after rupturing her ACL, leaving many across the world stunned.

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She showed promising signs in the Games' official training, posting the third fastest time, but things went horribly wrong for her early in the main event, clipping the flag as she attempted to make a turn before landing awkwardly and twisting.

She stayed down for several minutes and her screams could be heard before being stretchered off the course and airlifted to hospital by helicopter.

Vonn has since taken to Instagram to explain what went wrong and the severity of her injuries, but said she had "no regrets" about competing in Italy and shared a powerful message about taking risks and believing in herself.

"Yesterday my Olympic dream did not finish the way I dreamt it would. It wasn't a story book ending or a fairytale it was just life," she wrote via Instagram on Tuesday (AEDT).

"I dared to dream and had worked so hard to achieve it, because in downhill ski racing the difference between a strategic line and a catastrophic injury can be as small as five inches and I was simply five inches too tight on my line when my right arm hooked inside of the gate, twisting me and resulted in my crash.

"My ACL and past injuries had nothing to do with my crash whatsoever.

"Unfortunately, I sustained a complex tibia fracture that is currently stable but will require multiple surgeries. Despite the intense physical pain it caused, I have no regrets.

Watch the Winter Olympic Games Milano Cortina 2026 live and free on Channel 9 and 9Now. Plus, every event live & on demand, every medal in 4K, and exclusive international coverage on Stan Sport.

"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.

"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. I believe in you, just as you believed in me."

Vonn was taken to a clinic in Cortina, then transferred to a larger hospital in Treviso, a two-hour drive to the south. The Ca' Foncello hospital said Vonn "underwent an orthopaedic operation to stabilise a fracture reported in her left leg".

The Vonn calamity was a full circle moment of sorts, with Johnson reflecting after the race on her own heartbreaking crash in Cortina four years ago that ended her dream of Olympic glory just a fortnight out from Beijing 2022.

Ironically Johnson tore her ACL in that crash and chose not to compete with the injury. Vonn experienced the same thing in her last event before the Olympic Games but courageously attempted to soldier on in the face of an army of doubters.

"I don't claim to know what she's going through but I do know what it's like to be here, to be fighting for the Olympics and to have this course burn you and to watch those dreams die," Johnson said.

"It was one of the most heartbreaking moments of my life (in 2022). I can't imagine the pain she's going through, and it's not the physical pain. We can deal with the physical pain. But the emotional pain is something else.

"I wish her the best and I hope this isn't the end."

The Vonn crash left the crowd and TV broadcasters in shock, with the event stopped for 15 minutes while the American legend was checked by medics and the course cleared.

"The silence in the grandstand says it all," Nine commentator Matt Hill said.

As Nine showed replays of Vonn's fall, Australian alpine skiing expert Jono Brauer analysed what went wrong in commentary.

"She's caught her arm on the inside of the gate and that's what's twisted her around," he said.

"So had she been able to keep her right hand on the inside of the panel, on the inside of the flag, she would have been able to bash the gate out of the way and keep rolling. But her hand has gone literally between the two gates, underneath the flag and that's what's grabbed her, twisted her around and caused that accident."

The coverage panned to members of Vonn's family who looked distressed as they watched the aftermath of the crash unfold.

Nine reporter Lauren Tomasi described the "absolute shock and devastation".

"The crowd here is really just silent and hoping that Lindsey Vonn is OK," she said.

"We can see the chopper in the sky coming in now to pick up Vonn. This is not the way the world wanted this fairy tale to go.

"This was Lindsey Vonn's redemption and instead we've had this wave of, I think I can only describe it as 'I feel sick in my stomach' and that's what it looks like on the faces of everyone here.

"I can see Team America, and it's a strange sense here because you've got the music on in the background but the crowd's just watching on and hoping Lindsey Vonn's OK."

The broadcast also captured the shattered reaction of Johnson, who at the time of Vonn's crash was leading the standings and waiting at the bottom of the course to see if she could maintain the gold medal position having earlier clocked a rapid 1:36.10.

She finished .04 ahead of German silver medallist Emma Aicher (1:36.14), with Italian Sofia Goggia clinching bronze for the host nation in 1:36.69.

International Ski and Snowboard Federation president Johan Eliasch described Vonn's crash as "tragic" and thanked her for her contribution to the sport.

"Tragic, but it's ski racing I'm afraid. I can only say thank you for what she has done for our sport, because this race has been the talk of the Games and it's put our sport in the best possible light," he said.

"I hope she will have a speedy recovery and be back on skis very soon."

Vonn won gold in the downhill at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games and added a bronze at Pyeongchang 2018. She also won bronze in the Super-G in Vancouver.

She retired in 2019 due to a brutal catalogue of injuries but announced her return to the sport in November 2024 after knee replacement surgery. Vonn has been skiing with a knee that is part titanium ever since and, at 41, became the oldest downhill skiing World Cup winner in St Moritz two months ago.

The stars appeared to be aligning for a fairy tale story in Milano Cortina, but on January 30 she crashed in the World Cup downhill event in Crans-Montana, the final event before the Games, and four days later confirmed she had ruptured her ACL.

Despite the seriousness of the injury, Vonn became the poster child for attempting to compete at Milano Cortina without an ACL, with Australia's Daisy Thomas another example.

It hasn't gone well for either, with Thomas re-injuring her knee in a training crash on Friday and Vonn's awkward landing at the top of the course ending her campaign.

Eighteen-year-old Thomas withdrew from the slopestyle but is still hoping to compete in the big air, which starts on day eight of competition.

Eliasch said those criticising Vonn for entering the Games to compete without an ACL "don't know Lindsey. That's all I can say."

He also praised the medical staff involved in assisting Vonn and other athletes after crashes, saying: "It's incredibly important because you can sustain very serious injuries, and you need to be able to get to a hospital very quickly. It saves lives."

- with Liam O'Loughlin