Lindsey Vonn plans to race on Sunday despite a fully ruptured left ACL and meniscus damage.
An orthopedic surgeon noted that while Vonn is not a ‘normal human being,’ skiing without an ACL presents significant stability challenges.
Vonn has a history of competing with severe injuries, including previously racing on a torn ACL in her other knee.
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy – Lindsey Vonn hears a familiar voice in her head.
It’s only 90 seconds. Ninety seconds in a lifetime. It’s nothing you can’t do.
That’s what the late Erich Sailer, Vonn’s former coach, would tell her now, she said Tuesday. Vonn announced then that her crash at the World Cup run in Crans Montana on Jan. 30 resulted in a fully ruptured left ACL, meniscus damage and bone bruising. After coming out of retirement to become world No. 1 in the downhill at age 41, the injury threw Vonn’s 2026 Winter Olympics comeback into disarray.
Despite the devastating injury, she has every intention to race Sunday. Ligaments be damned.
“I will try, as long as I have the ability to,” Vonn said. “I will not go home regretting not trying. I will do everything in my power to be in that starting gate.’
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Vonn’s declaration was shocking only with respect to the feat itself, not her desire to participate. Many interested parties wondered how it’s even possible to ski without an ACL. Sliding from the top of a mountain, jumping and landing while flying at 70 mph (give or take) before skiing some more is not something a normal person could do in her state.
“But Lindsey’s not a normal human being,” Dr. Kevin Stone, an orthopedic surgeon, ACL specialist and former U.S. Ski Team physician, told USA TODAY Sports by phone Wednesday. “The question is, can a super well-trained athlete accommodate for the loss of stability she will have?
“You’ll know the answer as soon as she comes off the first jump.”
When an athlete tears their ACL, the knee’s key guiding ligament, their tibia subflexes forward, hitting the femur regularly. This causes bone bruising. There’s also often damage to the soft tissue supporting the knee, so tears in the meniscus cartilage are common.
Vonn previously – unknowingly – raced on a fully torn ACL in her right knee before the Sochi Olympics in 2014. That knee has since been partially replaced with a block of titanium.
Vonn’s biggest concern this week (as is Stone’s) is instability. She’s wearing a brace to prevent further damage. “Not that it really matters,” Vonn said, “because my meniscus is not great anyway.’
There’s no brace in the world, though, that could replace the control an ACL provides, Stone said. Not with what Vonn’s trying to do. “Unless the brace were to be drilled into the bones, which, of course, we would not do,” he said.
Same goes for the muscular apparatus around Vonn’s knee. Sure, that will help her rehab. And her mind-body connection combined with her strength will make controlling the knee easier. But, Stone said, “no amount of muscle strain can control or produce the exact normal motions of a knee joint missing its key guiding ligament.”
Between technological and medical advancements, a doctor could repair Vonn’s knee regardless of whether she’s able to land smoothly and into skiing the rest of the course this week. But, “the knee part, I can rebuild,” Stone warned. “The head, I can’t. If she’s unable to control landing and go into the fences.”
“But as many times as I crash, I’ve always gotten back up,” Vonn said. “As many times as I’ve failed, I’ve always won.”
Fellow Team USA speed skiers expressed their confidence in Vonn after her announcement. Bella Wright said they’re cheering her on “every step of the way,” pointing directly to the veteran’s mental game as the reason for her success. It’s “what makes Lindsey, Lindsey.”
Fellow Team USA speed skier Breezy Johnson said she tried and failed to ski in Cortina with no ACL four years ago. She had one successful training run, but crashed in the second. Johnson sustained severe right knee damage, which kept her out of the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
“There are, I think, more athletes that ski without ACLs and with knee damage than maybe talk about it,” Johnson said. “And I think it’s better to not judge people for doing it without (an ACL) and just see how it goes. I think people often are unwilling to talk about it because of judgement from the media and (from) the outside.”
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Italian skier Sofia Goggia fractured her fibula and partially tore her ACL on a downhill run in Cortina four years ago. She was on crutches for three days after the crash. Twenty days later, she won silver in the women’s downhill in Beijing.
The difference between Goggia and Vonn is that she doesn’t have 23 days. She has nine. Between her crash and the women’s downhill Sunday.
So there’s very little time to let her knee calm down from the initial trauma of the tear. And there’s very little time for her to learn how to accommodate the defunct ligament. Swelling and acute pain will be constant concerns, Stone said, although Vonn said Tuesday that she has not been in pain and has not experienced swelling.
The first training run for women’s alpine downhill is scheduled for Friday now after Thursday’s session was canceled due to snow that’s been falling all day in Cortina. That’ll allow Vonn to assess her knee. As long as she still feels stable and strong, she said she’ll ski in the downhill.
Until then, Vonn will rely on her head and her heart. To keep fears at bay and passion in check.
Actually, scratch that first part. Lindsey Vonn has “never been afraid.”
“I’ve always been the adventurer,” she said. “I’ve always been the kid that climbs the tree. My grandpa always called me a daredevil. It’s always who I’ve been. I’ve never been afraid of much in my life, and that’s why I’m a downhiller. I like risk. I like going fast. I like pushing myself to the limit.
“I love being on the mountain.”
Reach USA TODAY Network sports reporter Payton Titus at ptitus@gannett.com, and follow her on X @petitus25.