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By Giulia Carbonaro
Senior Reporter
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U.S. athlete Lindsey Vonn "will be evaluated by medical staff" after being airlifted out of the Winter Olympics after crashing during the final of the women’s downhill skiing event, the national Olympic governing body has told Newsweek.
“Lindsey Vonn fell in the Olympic downhill and will be evaluated by medical staff," U.S. Ski & Snowboard said in an emailed statement shortly after the crash. The organisation did not reveal details about the injury.
The 41-year-old could be heard screaming in agony in video footage of the crash, beamed live around the world, during the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics on Sunday.
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She hit the gate with her right shoulder before twisting and crashing hard at speed ahead of the first time marker less than 14 seconds into her run, live TV pictures showed.
Vonn was attended to by medical personnel within minutes, who placed her on a stretcher and zipped her into a red wrap and was airlifted off the course, hanging from the helicopter.
The crowd waiting at the bottom of the hill fell silent as the athlete fell.
Vonn's USA teammate Breezy Johnson was seen wiping away tears shortly after the crash.
Johnson, who spoke to Newsweek ahead of the games, ultimately won gold in the event.
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What To Know
Vonn had finished with the third-fastest time during training on Saturday, and was the 13th athlete to go down the 1.6-mile course on Sunday.
She had suffered a left ruptured anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) nine days before the race.
Vonn was making her comeback at the games, after having announced her retirement from competitive skiing in 2019 following a string of injuries.
At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, she crashed in a downhill training run and was airlifted from the mountain, though she returned to finish eighth in the competition. In 2010, she suffered a deep shin bruise and in 2014 she missed the Games in Sochi, Russia, because of a partial ACL tear. In 2018, at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang County, South Korea, she skied with a chunk of cartilage dislodged in her right knee.
But after undergoing partial knee replacement in April 2024, Vonn announced she was returning to competitive skiing and would have taken part in the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics.
She was attempting to become the oldest Alpine skier, man or woman, to ever win an Olympic medal. But the devastating crash on Sunday has definitely pushed this goal out of her reach, at least for this Games.
Breezy Johnson Wins Gold
Johnson won the Olympic title in a time of 1:36.10. Germany’s Emma Aicher won silver while Italy’s Sofia Goggia took the bronze medal.
Johnson has also suffered from debilitating injuries in recent years, having to miss the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, after dislodging her cartilage just before the Games.
What People Are Saying
Lindsey Vonn said on Saturday of her ACL injury: “Just because it seems impossible to you doesn’t mean it’s not possible. And yes, my ACL is 100 percent ruptured. Not 80 percent or 50 percent. It’s 100 percent gone.”
Lindsey Vonn's sister Karin Kildow told NBC: "It happened quick. When that happens you’re just like immediately hoping she’s okay. It was scary, because when you start to see the stretchers being put out, it's not a good sign. But she really, we were just saying, like the Man in the Arena, she just dared greatly. She put it all out there, so it's really hard to see.
"[Lindsey] always goes 110 percent. There's never anything less. I know she put her whole heart into it, and sometimes, things happen. It's a very dangerous sport, and there's a lot of variables at play, so I don't really know exactly what happened, but it did look like a pretty rough fall. We're just hoping for the best."
British alpine ski racer Chemmy Alcott in an emotional commentary analysis for the BBC: "When we thought about the end of this story we never thought, I just never believed, that it would end in a clump at the side of the piste not moving.
"What we saw is that the top section is running really fast. that left footer is really hard; it's hard for healthy athletes. So she's trying to throw herself down this, gunnig for the podium, and she doesn't have a left knee … this is an absolute nightmare, the whole world is watching."
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