Lindsey Vonn Sounds Off on Retirement and Desire to Race Again After Injuries from Olympic Crash

Despite suffering severe leg and ankle injuries during a crash at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, downhill skiing icon Lindsey Vonn isn't yet ready to make a determination regarding her future in the sport.

Speaking Wednesday to Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press, Vonn said, "I just don't want to jump to any conclusions or even speculate on what I might do. I may retire. I may never race again and that would be completely fine, but I'm not in a position emotionally to make that decision at this point."

Vonn added, "I'm still, like I said, in survival mode that I just want to get through this phase and be able to assess where I am in my life. And take count of what I've done and take count of what could be and make decisions in a much better place than where I am now. I don't want to make a decision now because I think that would be rash and probably too emotional and I don't want to make a mistake, you know?"

Despite tearing her ACL just two weeks before the start of the Olympics, Vonn decided to fight through it. However, she crashed just 13 seconds into her first and only race of the Games, suffering a broken right ankle and complex fractures in her left leg, per ESPN's Alyssa Roenigk.

After the crash, Vonn was airlifted to a hospital where she would spend the next two weeks before finally being permitted to travel back home to the United States from Italy.

Vonn has undergone eight surgeries in total since the crash, and she revealed in February that she narrowly avoided amputation of her leg:

The 41-year-old Vonn retired in 2019 amid mounting injuries, seemingly closing the book on a legendary career that saw her win three Olympic medals, including one gold, and over 80 World Cup races.

However, she returned to the slopes in 2024 and surprised many by winning World Cup downhill races in December 2025 and January 2026 during the lead up to the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Because of that, she was set to enter the Olympics as a legitimate medal contender, but a torn ACL suffered in Switzerland changed her outlook, and then the crash in Italy prematurely ended her Olympic run.

Vonn noted to Mahoney that although she isn't ready to completely shut the door on her career right now, she faces a long road back before she can even think about skiing again.

"Regardless, nothing would really happen until '27-28 because I still have one more surgery left to take out the metal and to replace my ACL," Vonn said. "That still needs to happen. Once I get my ACL fixed, then that's another six months, so I have at least I would say a year and a half ahead of me before I could really be back to 100%, even just training in the gym."

While Vonn is noncommittal, her father, Alan Kildow, made it clear after her Olympic crash that he wanted her to step away from skiing for good.

Kildow told the AP's Andrew Dampf, "She's 41 years old and this is the end of her career. There will be no more ski races for Lindsey Vonn, as long as I have anything to say about it."

With regard to her dad's declaration, Vonn told Mahoney, "He means the best. He forgot the cardinal rule with me is that if you don't want me to do something, you shouldn't tell me I can't. Tell me I can't and I'll prove you wrong."

While the odds are stacked against Vonn in terms of successfully returning to elite-level skiing competition given her age and injury history, she has proved many times that she can never be counted out.