Camilla Jessen
The moment stunned viewers around the world.
A scream echoed across the slope, and within minutes a helicopter was lifting one of skiing’s most famous figures off the mountain.
Now, Lindsey Vonn has spoken publicly for the first time about the crash that ended her Olympic hopes.
Crash on course
The 41-year-old Team USA favorite was competing on Sunday, February 8, when she lost control during her run and fell heavily. Vonn had entered the race despite having ruptured her ACL days earlier, after completing test runs without apparent issues.
During the descent, she clipped one of the flags and was violently thrown off line.
Broadcast footage captured her screaming in pain before she was airlifted to hospital.
Officials later confirmed she had fractured her leg.
First statement
On Monday, February 9, Vonn addressed the incident in a lengthy post on Instagram.
“Yesterday my Olympic dream did not finish the way I dreamt it would,” she wrote. “It wasn’t a story book ending or a fairy tail [sic], it was just life.”
She explained how narrowly the crash unfolded.
“Because in Downhill ski racing the difference between a strategic line and a catastrophic injury can be as small as 5 inches,” Vonn said.
What went wrong
Vonn described the precise moment of impact, stressing that her earlier knee injury was not to blame.
“I was simply 5 inches too tight on my line when my right arm hooked inside of the gate, twisting me and resulted in my crash,” she wrote.
“My ACL and past injuries had nothing to do with my crash whatsoever,” she added.
She later confirmed she had suffered a complex fracture of the tibia.
Vonn said she is currently in stable condition but will require “multiple surgeries” to repair the damage.
Despite the severity of the injury, she struck a defiant tone.
“While yesterday did not end the way I had hoped, and despite the intense physical pain it caused, I have no regrets,” she wrote.
No regrets
The skier said standing at the start gate was itself a victory. “Knowing I stood there having a chance to win was a victory in and of itself,” she said, acknowledging the dangers of her sport.
Vonn ended her message by urging others to take risks. “Life is too short not to take chances on yourself,” she wrote. “Because the only failure in life is not trying.”
Sources: Instagram, International Olympic Committee broadcast footage, Unilad
