Saying, “I’m gonna do it,” U.S. skier Lindsey Vonn says she intends to compete at the Olympics despite suffering a brutal ACL tear just last week,
“I’m not letting this slip through my fingers,” she said of competing at the Olympics this year. “I’m gonna do it, end of story!”
The 41-year-old skier added, “So, I’m not letting myself go down that path, I’m not crying, my head is high, I’m standing tall, and I’m going to do my best, and whatever the result is, that’s what it is. I can never say I didn’t try.”
Vonn suffered a brutal wipeout during her final Alpine Skiing World Cup event in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, on Friday and was immediately hospitalized after the crash. She ended up being told she suffered a “completely ruptured” ACL in her left knee.
Several skiers said that conditions on the track were horrendous, and two other competitors also crashed on Friday at the event, CNN reported.
But Vonn is also scheduled to race in the women’s downhill event on Sunday as the 2026 Winter Games open in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
Despite the terrible injury, though, Vonn is now insisting that she fully intends to compete at the Olympics this coming weekend.
“I will still need to do one training run, as is required to race on Sunday, but… I am confident in my body’s ability to perform. Despite my injuries, my knee is stable, I do not have swelling, and my muscles are firing and reacting as they should,” she wrote on Instagram on Tuesday.
“I will obviously be continuing to evaluate with my medical team on a daily basis to make sure we are making smart decisions, but I have every intention of competing on Sunday,” she added.
She also told reporters that she does not want to “have any regrets” about not competing, and insisted, “The Olympics are the only thing that I’m thinking about. Every day, my knee has gotten better.”
She added that if she were to medal this year, at 41 years of age and after such a brutal injury, “A pretty damn good comeback if I can pull it off.”
“Well, I will make it to the starting gate,” she said. “This would be the best comeback I’ve done so far. Definitely the most dramatic, that’s for sure.”
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: Facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston, Truth Social @WarnerToddHuston, or at X/Twitter @WTHuston
