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American Olympic legend Lindsey Vonn shared on Monday that she almost lost her left leg and needed a blood transfusion after suffering a devastating accident at the Winter Games.
Vonn shared her latest update in a video posted to her Instagram. He described the last two weeks as “by far the most extreme, painful and challenging injury” he has ever faced and thanked the doctor who performed the surgeries on his leg.
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Lindsey Vonn of Team USA during course inspection prior to Milan Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games downhill training at the Tofane Alpine Ski Center on February 6, 2026 in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. (Daniel Kopatsch/VOIGT/GettyImages)
“I basically had a complex tibia fracture,” he said. “I also fractured the head of my femur, the plateau of my tibia, everything was in pieces. And the reason it was so complex was because I had compartment syndrome. And compartment syndrome is when you have so much trauma in one area of your body that there is too much blood and it gets stuck and basically crushes everything in the compartment. So, all the muscles, nerves and tendons, everything dies.
“Dr. Tom Hackett saved my leg. He saved my leg from being amputated and he did what’s called a fasciotomy where he opened up both sides of my leg, opened it up so to speak, let it breathe and saved me.”
LINDSEY VONN TAKING ‘BABY STEPS’ AFTER LAST SURGERY WHICH LASTED OVER 6 HOURS: ‘MANY PLATES AND SCREWS’
Lindsey Vonn speeds down the track during official women’s alpine skiing training at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, on February 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati)
Vonn added that she lost a lot of blood during the surgeries and needed a blood transfusion.
“I feel very lucky and grateful for him, the six-hour surgery he did on Wednesday to reconstruct it, which went incredibly well. I was in the hospital longer than I expected because my hemoglobin was very low due to all the blood loss from all the surgeries. I was really struggling. The pain was a little out of control. I had to get a blood transfusion and that helped me a lot. I turned the corner and now I’m out,” she said.
Vonn said she hoped to transition from a wheelchair to crutches soon, but expected to be on crutches for at least two months.
“It will be a long road but I will make it. At least I am out of the hospital,” he added in the caption of his post on the social media platform.
Vonn suffered an accident during the women’s downhill alpine skiing event. He had persevered despite a torn ACL to even have a chance to win a medal.
Lindsey Vonn of the United States is airlifted after an accident during a women’s alpine ski race at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
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However, the injury forced her to be taken off the mountain by helicopter. She had multiple surgeries before being flown back to the US.
