American skier Lindsey Vonn revealed that amputation was in play while announcing that she’s finally been released from the hospital in a video shared on her Instagram account Monday (February 23).
“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. “All the muscle and nerves and tendons, it all kind of dies. And Dr. Tom Hackett had saved my life. He saved my leg from being amputated.”
Vonn, 41, underwent multiple surgeries after initially tearing her ACL on January 30 during a practice run at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, then opting to still compete, at which point she suffered a tibial plateau fracture and fibula head fracture following a serious crash during her qualifying run on February 8.
Vonn tried to correct herself midair but couldn’t and crashed to the snow, where she remained prone as concerned spectators watched in shocked silence as she could be heard wailing in pain. The crash took place about 13 to 14 seconds into her run, remaining down for about 13 minutes before loaded into a helicopter and airlifted about 18 minutes after the crash occurred.
Vonn is a three-time Olympic medalist, which included winning gold in the downhill and bronze in the super-G at the 2010 Vancouver Games and bronze in the downhill at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, as well as being a four-time overall World Cup champion and eight-time world championships medalist. Vonn’s 82 World Cup race victories — with her career total now at 84 — stood as the most for any female skier until being eclipsed by fellow American Mikaela Shiffrin, 30, who has at 108 career wins, the most of any Alpine skier in history.
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