On February 8, Lindsey Vonn suffered a complex tibia fracture to her left leg after she hooked a gate and crashed just 13 seconds into the women’s downhill skiing competition. That was her first event at the Milan Cortina Olympics, which was supposed to be her big comeback after injuries forced her to retire in 2019. Since then, Lindsey has had multiple surgeries to stabilize her injuries, both in Italy and after being transferred to a hospital in Colorado early last week.
Over the last two-plus weeks, Lindsey’s been giving her fans frequent updates on her Instagram page. On Monday, she announced that she’s finally out of the hospital and revealed that she also broke her right ankle in the crash. Lindsey shared more details about her broken leg. As it turns out, she had two additional fractures. Her injuries were so bad that she developed something called compartment syndrome that almost caused her leg to be amputated. Lindsey’s description of compartment syndrome and how her orthopedic surgeon saved life is in the quoted text below, but just a warning: it’s not for the squeamish.
Lindsey Vonn revealed she could have lost her leg as the result of her crash in the downhill at the Milano Cortina Olympics.
In an Instagram post Monday, Feb. 23, Vonn detailed injuries that were far more extensive than initially known. In addition to the complex tibial fracture in her left leg, Vonn said she had a tibial plateau fracture and fractured fibular head. She also broke her right ankle.
Vonn also had compartment syndrome, and said that was what posed the greatest threat.
“Compartment syndrome is when you have so much trauma to one area of your body, that there’s too much blood, and it gets stuck, and it basically crushes everything in the compartment,” Vonn said “All the muscle and nerves and tendons, it all kind of dies. And Dr. Tom Hackett saved my leg. He saved my leg from being amputated.”
Excessive pressure building up inside a muscle, either from bleeding or swelling, causes compartment syndrome. The pressure restricts blood flow and can lead to permanent injury if not treated quickly.
Vonn said Hackett, her longtime orthopedic surgeon, was in Cortina to watch her compete at her fifth Olympics. He conducted a fasciotomy to save her leg when she was hospitalized in Italy.
“He filleted it open (and) let it breathe, and he saved me,” she said.
Vonn also announced that she’s out of the hospital.
She was hospitalized in Italy for a little over a week before being transferred to a hospital in Colorado. She has had five surgeries since the Feb. 8 crash, including one last week after she returned to the United States that lasted more than six hours.
“Now I will focus on rehab and progressing from a wheelchair to crutches in a few weeks,” Vonn said in the post. “It will take around a year for all of the bones to heal and then I will decide if I want to take out all the metal or not, and then go back into surgery and finally fix my ACL.”
Vonn said all of the surgeries have caused an enormous amount of pain, and also required her to have a blood transfusion. She said Team USA’s performance at the 2026 Winter Olympics has helped bring her joy during this difficult time.
“It’s been really hard … it was definitely not the way I wanted to end my Olympics,” Vonn said. “But it’s been really inspiring to watch my teammates. Everyone’s just been incredible, and watching Team USA dominate has been really uplifting.
“I always fight, I’ll keep going. No regrets. And, I just appreciate all the love and support. It’s been really amazing.”
That is so scary! Dr. Hackett is not only Lindsey’s personal orthopedic surgeon in Vail, CO, but he’s also served as a physician for Team USA for every Winter Olympics since 2010. Thank goodness he was there and able to perform the surgery. It must have been a small relief for Lindsey to have someone she knew and trusted operating on her. She’s going to have a long recovery ahead of her, and I truly wish her all of the best.
Meanwhile, Lindsey has had a lot of fans rallying around her, including some very famous ones. Some of the many celebrities that have commented on her Instagram posts include Reese Witherspoon, Taylor Lautner, Ashley Judd, and Mariska Hargitay, who even visited her in the hospital. Lindsey’s sister also helped her keep her spirit up by pointing out one “silver lining” of her hospital stay was all of the hot Italian nurses and doctors. She even made a video creeping on some of them. I watched the video and can confirm that there were indeed hot Italians working at that hospital.
Photos credit: Credit: Imago/Frank Heinen/Avalon, Francesca Vieceli/IPA/INSTARimages, Backgrid,IMAGO/Revierfoto/Avalon