The 41-year-old hoped to make a stunning comeback by competing on a “completely ruptured” ACL
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Lindsey Vonn at the 2026 Winter Olympics.Credit : François-Xavier MARIT / AFP via Getty
Lindsey Vonn’s Olympic comeback ended in horror, as she crashed just seconds into her run.
The 41-year-old got twisted up as she passed a marker 13 seconds into her run in the women’s downhill event on Sunday, Feb. 8 and crashed to the snow, flipping and spinning in the air several times before finally landing.
Minutes after the crash, Vonn remained on the slopes. The athlete could be heard yelling, “Oh my God” in pain as a medical team tended to her.
Spectators in the stands who’d come to cheer on the star, including rapper Snoop Dogg, could be seen with their heads down as Vonn remained on the slopes.
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Lindsey Vonn is airlifted off the mountain in Cortina after crashing at the 2026 Winter Olympics.Al Bello/Getty
After more than 15 minutes being attended to by medical staff, Vonn was put on a stability board and airlifted by helicopter out of the mountains to a hospital.
Vonn’s U.S. teammate, Breezy Johnson, is currently in first place.
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Lindsey Vonn at the moment she caught on a gate that led her to crash at the 2026 Winter Olympics.AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
The five-time Olympian was not the only skier to crash during the event — Austria’s Nina Ortlieb also fell, but was able to ski out the course. Andorra’s Cande Moreno was not as lucky, though, and crashed almost immediately after starting and also had to be airlifted off the mountain.
Vonn had hoped to do the unbelievable and medal on Sunday in Cortina, just one week after she “completely ruptured” her ACL in a World Cup race on Jan. 30.
“It was painful initially after the crash,” she said in a press conference on Feb. 3. “I had a feeling it was bad, but I held out hope until I saw the MRI in front of me. But I have not cried, I have not deviated from my plan.”
Vonn vowed to compete, and said with a smile, “I think this would be the best comeback I’ve done so far. The most dramatic, that’s for sure.”
The 2010 Olympic gold medalist was also determined to make these Milan Cortina Games happen for a deeply personal reason, she told PEOPLE last month.
“Honestly, I don’t know if I would have done this if it wasn’t at Cortina,” she admitted. “It’s where I got my first podium [placing third at the 2004 World Cup]. I also broke the women’s World Cup record there.”
That 2004 World Cup was also the first time her parents Alan and Lindy, who divorced when she was young, were able to see Vonn make a podium. Lindy died in 2022 after a year-long battle with ALS, which hit her daughter hard. Vonn told PEOPLE she came back to Cortina for her parents.
“It’s one of the few races in my whole career that both of my parents were at,” she says. “So it’s a very special place for me.”
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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