By Aleksandra Michalska
NEW YORK, April 30 (Reuters) - Three-times Olympic medallist Lindsey Vonn is unsure if she will return to competitive ski racing, the 41-year-old said on Wednesday, adding that she is still processing the aftermath of a scary crash at the Milano Cortina Olympics.
The decorated American alpine skier suffered a complex tibia fracture in a crash during an Olympic downhill race on February 8 in Italy that saw her airlifted off the mountain.
The injury nearly resulted in her left
leg being amputated and came nine days after Vonn tore her anterior cruciate ligament in a World Cup crash.
“It's definitely something that, you know, I want to think about, but I honestly can't,” Vonn said of her competitive future in an interview with Reuters in New York.
“I've tried and I can't really make a decision one way or the other because I haven't really processed where I am even right now.”
Vonn has had eight surgeries since the crash.
While she is no longer using a wheelchair and is working her way off crutches, there is still a long road to recovery ahead, including repairing her ACL. She hopes to be 100% fit by next spring or summer.
The 2010 Olympic downhill champion announced her retirement in 2019 due to chronic injuries before staging a comeback in 2024 after knee-replacement surgery.
Vonn made history in December 2025 when she became the oldest downhill skier to win a World Cup race, and was the top-ranked in the discipline heading into Milano Cortina.
“There's definitely closure that's missing,” she said of her Olympic comeback that was cut short by the crash. “It wasn't the way I wanted to end my second chapter of my career, definitely not the way I wanted it to finish the Olympics.”
VONN HAS NO REGRETS OVER COMEBACK
That is not to say Vonn regrets making the comeback, which was meant to be her last season. “I paid a heavy price, but I would pay it again,” she said.
Vonn, who recently partnered with biopharmaceutical company Invivyd for their Antibodies for Any Body campaign, has been taking her recovery one step at a time.
She has been keeping herself busy with episodes of the "Law & Order” drama series, ice cream, her dog and family. Vonn is also hoping to return to water sports, having previously taken kitesurfing lessons, and lifting weights in the gym.
While she needs time to decide on her future, the second most successful female World Cup skier of all time behind compatriot Mikaela Shiffrin told Reuters she is not completely ruling out a return to racing yet, or even an appearance at the 2030 Olympics in the French Alps, when she would be 45.
“I don't want to close any doors because I don’t know where my path is headed at this moment,” said Vonn. “But I know that if I applied myself and I was healthy enough to do it that I could probably still be fast even at 45.”
For now, though, she is focused on her health, staying positive and reminding herself of all that she has accomplished since making her World Cup debut in 2000.
“As long as I can walk, I honestly will be happy,” said Vonn. “I think this injury has definitely taught me, as all my injuries have, about perspective and being thankful for what you have and not taking anything for granted.”
(Reporting by Aleksandra Michalska; Writing by Nicole Fernandes in Toronto; Editing by Ken Ferris)
