Lindsey Vonn crashes in Olympic women’s downhill, airlifted off course

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Lindsey Vonn said she would make it to the Olympic downhill starting gate despite rupturing the most important ligament in her knee nine days ago, and she did.

But Vonn’s dream of reclaiming the downhill gold medal Sunday ended in disappointment, as the American Alpine skiing legend crashed on the famed Olympia delle Tofane slope at the Winter Olympics.

Starting 13th, Vonn went off a jump and clipped a gate in midair, sending her sideways as she landed and crashed hard to the snow, tumbling down the icy slope, her skis twirling as she careened to a stop. She lay still as medics hustled across the mountain to treat her.

Down at the bottom of the hill in the finish area, silence spread across a grandstand filled with thousands of fans. Only moments before, they had roared for her as she burst out of the gate. Maybe the hometown Italians had gotten louder cheers. Probably not.

It was all done in 13 seconds. Within minutes, a helicopter could be heard flying up the mountain as medics tended to Vonn in the middle of the slope. The helicopter airlifted her out and flew over the finish area to a loud ovation. The race was paused for about 20 minutes.

“That definitely was the last thing we wanted to see,” Vonn’s sister, Karin Kildow, said on the NBC broadcast after Vonn was airlifted out. “It happened quick. When that happens, you’re just immediately hoping she’s OK. It was scary because when you start seeing the stretchers being put out, it’s not a good sign.

“She put it all out there, so it’s really hard to see.”

Kildow said the family hoped for an update on Vonn’s status soon.

“She has all of her surgeons and her (physical therapy) staff here and her doctors, so I’m sure they’ll give us a report,” Kildow said. “I think she’s being evaluated right now is the only thing we’ve heard.”

U.S. teammate Breezy Johnson won the race, becoming the first American since Vonn in 2010 to win Olympic gold in the downhill. Johnson said her “heart aches” for Vonn and said she was honored to be the next in line for a downhill triumph.

“Lindsey has accomplished so much and will live in a different echelon than I do,” Johnson said, “but I think that to have your name alongside her is really something special.”

Asked if she had an update on Vonn, Johnson said that Vonn’s coach told her that Vonn was cheering for her in the helicopter.

For more than two decades, no one skied harder, more aggressively or more fearlessly than Vonn. It was her superpower. It turned her into the greatest speed skier in the sport’s history, but it also led to a series of jarring crashes that ultimately ended her career six years ago.

Even making it to the starting gate was an astounding result given that it came a little over a week after Vonn ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in her left knee in one of her final races before the Olympics. The injury appeared to dash Vonn’s hopes of becoming the oldest person to win an Olympic medal in Alpine before reaching Cortina.

But with a combination of determination, strength and guts, Vonn manifested enough health and stability for her left knee to try, brushing off an injury that sidelines most athletes for the better part of a year. Vonn is not “most athletes.” At 41, she is an irrepressible force obsessed with speed and skiing who loves nothing more than flying down a steep sheet of ice at 80 mph on the edge of recklessness and sanity, where all great downhill skiers thrive.

The crash brought a heartbreaking end to one of the great early dramas of the first days of these Winter Games and added another sheen of luster to Vonn’s record-breaking career. She’s won 84 World Cup races — including two downhills this season — along with eight world championship and three Olympic medals. Only Mikaela Shiffrin (108) and Sweden’s Ingemar Stenmark (86) have won more World Cup races.

Vonn is airlifted off the mountain. (Jacquelyn Martin / AP)

“Tragic, but it’s ski racing, I’m afraid,” said FIS president Johan Eliasch. “I can only say thank you for what she has done for our sport, because this race has been the talk of the Games and it’s put our sport in the best possible light.

“I hope she will have a speedy recovery and be back on skis very soon.”

It’s unclear if Vonn suffered further damage to the knee. She was originally scheduled to race the downhill, team combined and super-G at these Olympics. The latter two are still to come.

For more than a week, Vonn had seemed superhuman. She completed two training runs in decent form, especially the second one Saturday.

When it was over, her coach, Aksel Lund Svindal, said the only cause for concern was that she was landing on one ski rather than two. She seemingly favored her right knee, the one that had undergone successful partial knee replacement surgery in 2024, allowing her to make her comeback. Svindal said she could land on two skis, but her brain seemed to be subconsciously leading her to favor her right one.

Vonn didn’t talk to the media after those runs. Svindal spoke for her, and he was optimistic.

“I think you’re going to be speaking with someone else tomorrow,” he said Saturday.

Instead, Vonn was carried off a mountain in a helicopter for the second time in nine days.

The combination of Johnson’s wild run that set the early pace — and held up — and Vonn’s crash created the ultimate swing of joy and heartbreak for the remaining American racers, Jacqueline Wiles and Bella Wright.

Wiles described an emotional roller coaster at the top of the mountain as the medics tended to Vonn.

“There was a lot of emotions already before I even ran,” she said. “I saw Breezy have an incredible run. I was really pumped and psyched for her. It was cool to watch. Then watching Lindsey go down from the start was pretty awful.”

There would be more emotions for Wiles after her run, and not the kind she wanted. She finished fourth, one spot off the medal stand.

Wright was still visibly shaken an hour later after she finished in 21st place.

“After years of hard work and rehabilitation and all the things, it’s the last thing you want to see somebody go through,” Wright said.

Wright said Vonn remained an inspiration, but this was a lot to stomach.

“She deserves more,” Wright said.

Sadly, that’s not how Alpine skiing or really any sport works. Hard work and commitment and big dreams can create opportunities, but there is never any guarantee of results.

Most athletes don’t get out of their careers what they put in. Sometimes, someone else is simply better. Sometimes, a ski rattles over a tiny, nearly invisible undulation, and a split second later, a racer crashes into a gate in midair and somersaults down a mountain in a cloud of ice and snow.

Svindal had said Friday he had no doubt that Vonn would be ready mentally and physically come race time.

By all accounts she was, until she wasn’t. Until the Olympia delle Tofane, one of the treasures of the sport, a place of glory and drama, had delivered ski racing heartbreak once more.