Lindsey Vonn has issued an emotional update following her Winter Olympics crash on Sunday (8 February) which left her with a broken leg.The 41-year-old American sports star was competing in the women’s downhill competition in Cortina when she crashed out of the race, and is now facing ‘multiple surgeries’.Vonn clipped a gate and crashed just seconds into her run, with a helicopter airlifting her off the mountain before she later underwent surgery on a broken leg in a hospital in Treviso.
She had damaged her ACL just over a week before the event, however, had successfully finished two practice runs of the Cortina course and so felt confident to go ahead.In an initial update on X following the crash, the US Ski and Snowboard Team shared the news that Vonn ‘sustained an injury, but is in stable condition and in good hands with a team of American and Italian physicians’.And in an additional statement, quoted on olympics.com on Sunday evening, Ca’ Foncello Hospital confirmed the 41-year-old ‘underwent orthopaedic surgery to stabilise a fracture in her left leg’.Now, Vonn herself has spoken in a lengthy social media statement posted to Instagram on Monday (9 February).Vonn had been chasing a dream 16 years on from her downhill win in Vancouver, after returning from retirement, and following a partial knee replacement to target an Olympic medal.