Lindsey Vonn Reveals Surgeon Saved Her Leg After Olympic Crash Had Her Facing Amputation

Lindsey Vonn said this week that emergency surgery after her crash in the women’s downhill at the Milan Cortina Olympics saved her from losing her left leg, adding a new layer of detail to one of the most serious injuries of her career. The crash happened during the Olympic downhill on Feb. 8 in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, where Vonn clipped a gate and went off course just 13 seconds into her run. She was airlifted from the course and later underwent multiple surgeries.

Vonn, 41, said the initial issue was a complex fracture to her left tibia, but the more dangerous complication came after the crash, when she developed compartment syndrome in the injured leg. That condition involves pressure building up inside the muscle from bleeding or swelling, which can cut off blood flow and cause permanent damage if it is not treated quickly. Vonn said Dr. Tom Hackett, an orthopedic surgeon who works with Team USA and has also treated her before, performed the procedure that prevented that outcome.

Vonn described the injury and treatment in detail in a video update and social media post. “I had compartment syndrome. And compartment syndrome is when you have so much trauma to one area of your body that there’s too much blood and it gets stuck, and it basically crushes everything in the compartment,” Vonn said Monday. “All the muscles and nerves and tendons, it all kind of dies. And doctor Tom Hackett saved my life. He saved my leg from being amputated.”

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She also explained the fasciotomy that relieved the pressure in her leg, saying, “He filleted it open [and] let it breathe, and he saved me.”

The timing of Hackett being in Cortina mattered. Vonn said he was there because she had been competing despite a torn ACL in her left knee leading into the Games. She said that previous injury, while separate from the crash itself, is the reason Hackett was on site when the downhill accident happened. “If I hadn’t had done that, Tom wouldn’t have been there. He wouldn’t have been able to save my leg,” she said. “I feel very lucky and grateful for him.”

Vonn’s recovery has included extensive treatment in Italy and the United States. She underwent multiple surgeries during a hospital stay in Treviso, Italy, after the crash and later returned to the United States on a gurney for another operation. She also said she broke her right ankle in the crash, which has left her in a wheelchair and unable to move much as rehab begins. Vonn added that she dealt with significant pain and blood loss after the accident and received a transfusion.

She said the next phase is basic mobility and rehab before any long term decisions can be made. “Now I will focus on rehab and progressing from a wheelchair to crutches in a few weeks,” the 41-year-old said. “It will take around a year for all of the bones to heal, and then I will decide if I want to take out all the metal or not, and then go back into surgery and finally fix my ACL.”

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Despite the severity of the injuries, Vonn said she does not regret returning to competition. She came into the Olympics as a comeback story at age 41 and had reentered the conversation as a medal contender after strong World Cup results before the Games. She won downhill gold at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and has three Olympic medals overall. She also remains one of the most decorated skiers in the sport, with 84 World Cup victories, which is second among women behind Mikaela Shiffrin.

Vonn made clear that the ending in Cortina was not what she wanted, but she also made clear she is not second guessing the decision to race. “I’d rather go down swinging than not try at all, and I think what I was able to achieve was more than anyone expected to begin with,” Vonn said. “I worked really hard to get back and it was so worth it.”

She also acknowledged the scale of the recovery in front of her. “It’s going to be a long road,” she said. “I always fight and we keep going.”

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