Lindsey Vonn Reveals Extent of Her Injuries Following Devastating Crash at the Olympics

United States’ Lindsey Vonn is assisted after crashing during the women’s super G at the alpine ski World Championships, in Are, Sweden, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. (Pontus Lundahl/TT News Agency via AP, File)

Alpine skiing legend Lindsey Vonn revealed the extent of her injuries in an Instagram post on Monday, following her devastating and Olympics-ending crash over the weekend during the medal run at the women’s downhill.

“Yesterday my Olympic dream did not finish the way I dreamt it would. It wasn’t a story book ending or a fairy tail, it was just life. I dared to dream and had worked so hard to achieve it. Because in Downhill ski racing the difference between a strategic line and a catastrophic injury can be as small as 5 inches,” Vonn wrote to begin her post.

Vonn, who was in the midst of a successful late-career comeback, had torn her ACL in a crash in Switzerland just days before the Winter Olympics kicked off in northern Italy last week.

“I was simply 5 inches too tight on my line when my right arm hooked inside of the gate, twisting me and resulted in my crash. My ACL and past injuries had nothing to do with my crash whatsoever,” Vonn continued, brushing aside critics who argued her skiing with an injury resulted in her crash. She added:

Unfortunately, I sustained a complex tibia fracture that is currently stable but will require multiple surgeries to fix properly.

While yesterday did not end the way I had hoped, and despite the intense physical pain it caused, I have no regrets. Standing in the starting gate yesterday was an incredible feeling that I will never forget. Knowing I stood there having a chance to win was a victory in and of itself. I also knew that racing was a risk. It always was and always will be an incredibly dangerous sport.

And similar to ski racing, we take risks in life. We dream. We love. We jump. And sometimes we fall. Sometimes our hearts are broken. Sometimes we don’t achieve the dreams we know we could have. But that is the also the beauty of life; we can try.

I tried. I dreamt. I jumped.

I hope if you take away anything from my journey it’s that you all have the courage to dare greatly. Life is too short not to take chances on yourself. Because the only failure in life is not trying.

I believe in you, just as you believed in me.

Breezy Johnson, Vonn’s team USA teammate, won the gold at the downhill.

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