American skier Lindsey Vonn will soon be back in the states.
A week after her terrifying crash and subsequent helicopter evacuation in the Olympic downhill, Vonn was preparing to return home Sunday, the Associated Press reported.
Vonn revealed a day earlier that she had been cleared to go back to the U.S. after having her fourth surgery for the major tibia fracture in her left leg she suffered two days into the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics.
“Surgery went well today!” she wrote in the caption of an Instagram post, three days after her last surgery. “Thankfully I will be able to finally go back to the US! Once I’m back I will give you more updates and info about my injury.”
U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association president and CEO Sophie Goldschmidt told the AP Sunday that she’s visited Vonn in the hospital twice and said “she’s not in pain.” Goldschmidt confirmed that the team’s medical staff is working on the logistics of getting Vonn home.
“We’ve got a great team around helping her, and she’ll go back to the U.S. for further surgeries,” Goldschmidt said.
Vonn, 41, tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee in the lead up to the Feb. 8 race. Despite the injury, Vonn decided to move forward with her Olympic hopes.
The 2010 Olympic gold medal winner wiped out 13.4 seconds into her run after she got hooked on a gate. The incident sent Vonn into the air before she tumbled down the Dolomite mountain.
Vonn was airlifted off the course at Cortina d’Ampezzo and later revealed she would need multiple surgeries to fix the break in her leg before she could return home.
Vonn has undergone four surgeries in the past week and appears to have the green light from her medical team to get back home.
In Vonn’s latest Instagram post, the American skier asked people not to feel sorry for her.
“I hope instead it gives you strength to keep fighting,” Vonn wrote in the caption, “because that is what I am doing and that is what I will continue to do. Always.”
Vonn understood the risk of competing with an injured knee but didn’t want to regret not trying anyway.
“But just because I was ready, that didn’t guarantee me anything,” she continued. “Nothing in life is guaranteed. That’s the gamble of chasing your dreams, you might fall but if you don’t try you’ll never know.”
Goldschmidt applauded Vonn for her courage and how she continues to handle this adversity with such grace.
“She took an aggressive line and was all in and it was inches off what could have ended up a very different way,” Goldschmidt said. “But what she’s done for our sports and the sport in general, her being a role model, has gone to a whole new level. You learn often more about people during these tough moments than when they’re winning.”
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