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FILE – United States’ Lindsey Vonn smiles during a press conference by the U.S. ski team at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026.<\/p>\n
Fatima Shbair\/AP<\/p>\n
FILE – United States’ Lindsey Vonn crashes into a gate during an alpine ski women’s downhill race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026.<\/p>\n
Jacquelyn Martin\/AP<\/p>\n
FILE – FILE – Lindsey Vonn, of the United States, poses with all the Olympic medals and Women’s World Cup skiing trophies she has won in her career, on March 13, 2010, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.<\/p>\n
Giovanni Auletta\/AP<\/p>\n
FILE – United States’ Lindsey Vonn is airlifted away after a crash during an alpine ski women’s downhill race at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026.<\/p>\n
Jacquelyn Martin\/AP<\/p>\n
FILE – United States’ Lindsey Vonn arrives at the finish area during the alpine ski women’s downhill training at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026.<\/p>\n
Robert F. Bukaty\/AP<\/p>\n
NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Lindsey Vonn is still recovering physically and emotionally from her frightening crash at the Winter Olympics. For now, the tough decisions about the future can wait.<\/p>\n
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She has undergone eight surgeries after suffering a complex left leg fracture \u2014 one that nearly led to a leg amputation \u2014 in the women\u2019s downhill skiing race on Feb. 8. She needs at least one more to repair a torn ACL in that same knee.<\/p>\n
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So if the 41-year-old races again \u2014 and she\u2019s not ready to make that decision \u2014 a return is at least a year and a half away, Vonn told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just don\u2019t want to jump to any conclusions or even speculate on what I might do,\u201d Vonn said. \u201cI may retire. I may never race again and that would be completely fine, but I\u2019m not in a position emotionally to make that decision at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n
A return to retirement was an option after a comeback season <\/p>\n
Vonn thinks she would have returned to retirement had she been able to complete a comeback season that rivaled one of the best of her career. She ended a six-year absence from the sport largely to race at Cortina, Italy, one of her favorite courses, and the venue for the Milan Cortina Games.<\/p>\n
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The winner of three Olympic medals, including a downhill gold in 2010, crashed just 13 seconds into the race and suffered a complex tibia fracture, shocking a star-studded crowd and ending a season in which she led the World Cup downhill standings and hadn\u2019t finished worse than fourth in any race.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s returned from an assortment of injuries before \u2014 she has a titanium implant in her right knee \u2014 but this one was different. The pain was different. The eight surgeries are just one shy of the total she had for all the others combined.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a much different injury in that way, again, like the severity of the injury and understanding that I could have lost my leg and how bad things were,\u201d Vonn said. \u201cI can deal with a lot of pain, but this was so extreme. It\u2019s not even been in the universe of pain with this injury as what I\u2019ve had before.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Vonn is making progress in and out of the gym<\/a>, though not as quickly as she would like. She has moved beyond a wheelchair and now is on crutches \u2014 she is weary of both \u2014 and next week will be able to begin walking short distances.<\/p>\n \u2018Tell me I can\u2019t and I’ll prove you wrong’<\/p>\n She is able to travel again, making a trip to New York this week to discuss her support for the biopharmaceutical company Invivyd’s \u201cAntibodies for Any Body\u201d campaign, and she has an upcoming vacation planned.<\/p>\n Beyond that, the future is hard to see.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Vonn said she hasn’t spoken to her doctor about what a return to skiing would look like, saying they both prefer to focus on this phase of her recovery.<\/p>\n \u201cRegardless, 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. That still needs to happen,\u201d Vonn said. \u201cOnce I get my ACL fixed, then that\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Vonn knows there could be risks in a return, and family members don’t want her to take them. It was only a day after her crash, when she was still in the hospital, that her father said her career would be over if it were up to him. Said Vonn: \u201cHe means the best. He forgot the cardinal rule with me is that if you don\u2019t want me to do something, you shouldn\u2019t tell me I can\u2019t. Tell me I can\u2019t and I\u2019ll prove you wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n A risk Vonn has \u2018always taken happily,\u2019 but she doesn’t \u2018want a do-over\u2019<\/p>\n Vonn has never shied from taking chances \u2014 she raced in the Olympics a little more than a week after tearing her ACL \u2014 no matter how they turned out.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cDownhill skiing is one of the most dangerous sports in the world, and that\u2019s a risk that I\u2019ve always taken happily, and this is the result, and I don\u2019t regret it,\u201d said Vonn, who noted she had done all she could to be fully prepped for the race. \u201cI don\u2019t want a do-over.\u201d<\/p>\n But she will at some point decide if she wants to race again.<\/p>\n For now, Vonn said she’s focused simply on getting her leg healthy. Only after that’s done can she start thinking about a career that may or may not be over.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m 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,\u201d said Vonn, whose 84 World Cup wins are second-most among women, trailing only teammate Mikaela Shiffrin (110). “And take count of what I\u2019ve done and take count of what could be and make decisions in a much better place than where I am now.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to make a decision now because I think that would be rash and probably too emotional and I don\u2019t want to make a mistake, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n AP Sports Writer Pat Graham in Denver contributed to this report.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n AP skiing: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/alpine-skiing<\/a>\n<\/p>\n