The American Lindsey Vonn, returned to the top this winter at the age of 41 on the world alpine ski circuit, confirmed Tuesday that she would participate in the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics despite a total rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee.
“I have confidence in the fact that I could run on Sunday (day of the Olympic downhill, Editor’s note),” explained Vonn, one of the expected stars of these Games, during a press conference in Cortina d’Ampezzo.
Vonn was injured Friday when she fell heavily during the downhill in Crans-Montana (Switzerland), the last World Cup downhill before the Olympics. Unbalanced upon landing a jump, the American fell, then slid several dozen meters before being stopped by safety nets. After a long break, she was able to reach the finish area on her skis, before announcing that she was injured in her left knee without giving further details.
“During my fall in Crans-Montana, I completely ruptured my anterior cruciate ligament, I damaged my meniscus, we don’t know if it was due to the fall itself,” she detailed. We did a lot of treatment, we consulted doctors, I went to the gym and today I skied, my knee is holding up, I feel strong. »
“My intention is to run all these races”
“I’m not in the situation I would have liked to be in but I will be at the start (…) It’s hard for me to lose confidence in myself, it’s not the first time that this kind of thing has happened to me,” insisted Vonn, who had suffered a similar injury before the 2014 Olympics in which she was unable to participate.
Vonn said she wasn’t sure if she would take the team combined on Feb. 8 and the super-G on Feb. 12: “My plan is to run all of those races, but we’ll know more after the downhill.”
The champion, who will wear a brace, returned to competition especially for the 2026 Olympics which are taking place on the “Olimpia delle Tofane”, one of her favorite tracks where she has won twelve times during her career out of a total of 84 World Cup victories.
The American, Olympic downhill champion in 2010 and quadruple winner of the world number one globe, ended her career in 2019, notably due to pain that had become unbearable in her right knee, injured several times.
But after the post of a titanium prosthesis, the skier from Vail made a resounding return to competition last winter, to everyone’s surprise. This season, Vonn competed in nine races, won two and never left the podium except during the super-G in St Moritz (4th) and in Crans-Montana.
