Vonn crashed 13 seconds into her run in the Winter Olympics on Feb. 8, and Johnson went on to win gold for Team USA
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Lindsey Vonn; Breezy Johnson.Credit : Stefano RELLANDINI / AFP via Getty; Ezra Shaw/Getty
Lindsey Vonn’s Olympic dreams may have ended with a frightening crash, but she was still happy to root for her teammate Breezy Johnson.
Johnson — who took home the gold medal in women’s downhill skiing — said at a press conference after her win that Vonn, 41, celebrated her from the helicopter as the five-time Olympian was being airlifted off the slopes in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy on Sunday, Feb. 8.
“Her coach said she was cheering for me in the helicopter, so I hope for the best for her,” Johnson, 30, told reporters. “I hope that it’s not too bad. My heart aches for her. It’s such a brutal sport sometimes.”
The athlete added that that difficulty is part of the “beauty and the madness” of skiing.
“It can hurt you so badly but you keep coming back for more,” she said.
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Lindsey Vonn the moment she caught on a course marker, causing her to crash at the 2026 Winter Olympics.AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
Vonn, who competed roughly one week after “completely” rupturing her ACL, was 13 seconds into her run on Sunday when she flipped and spun several times before finally landing. She could be heard yelling, “Oh my god” in pain as medical staff rushed to her aid.
She was attended to for roughly 15 minutes and then airlifted out of the mountains to a hospital.
Many spectators who had come to cheer for Vonn in her return to the Olympics, including rapper Snoop Dogg, looked on quietly with their heads down as she Vonn was attended to by medical staff.
Two days before the run, Vonn said “no one would have believed I would be here” and told fans that “no matter what, I know how lucky I am” in an Instagram post. “I’m not going to waste this chance 💪🏻 Let’s go get it!!,” she said on Feb. 6.
After rupturing her ACL on Friday, Jan. 30 when she crashed in low visibility conditions during a downhill race in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, Vonn said it was “a very difficult outcome one week before the Olympics… but if there’s one thing I know how to do, it’s a comeback.”
On Feb. 5, Johnson defended Vonn’s decision to compete after an account on Threads asked why there wasn’t a “backup athlete” for Vonn, saying “seems she can’t possibly be elite with those compromises.”
Johnson replied, “There will be 6 Americans running the Downhill training runs and if Lindsey cannot compete… or doesn’t feel competitive enough others can take her place. But more athletes have competed without an ACL than you think. They just often don’t talk about it because they don’t want to hear about it from the peanut gallery.”
To learn more about all the Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, come to people.com to check out ongoing coverage before, during and after the games. Watch the Milan Cortina Olympics and Paralympics, beginning Feb. 6, on NBC and Peacock.
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