CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Lindsey Vonn had a “successful” third surgery on her broken left leg following her downhill crash at the Olympics, the American skier said Wednesday.

Vonn posted an update on Instagram that included photos of her giving a thumbs-up sign in her hospital bed with a metal frame attached to her leg.

“I had my 3rd surgery today and it was successful. Success today has a completely different meaning than it did a few days ago,” Vonn said. “I’m making progress and while it is slow, I know I’ll be ok.”

Vonn, 41, crashed 13 seconds into her run during Sunday’s race at the Milan Cortina Games and was airlifted off the course by helicopter. She said late Monday she had suffered a “complex tibia fracture that is currently stable but will require multiple surgeries to fix properly.”

Nine days before Sunday’s crash, Vonn ruptured the ACL in her left knee in another crash. Even before then, all eyes had been on her as the feel-good story heading into the Games for her comeback after nearly six years of retirement.

Vonn’s father, Alan Kildow, told The Associated Press on Monday that she is surrounded by family “at all times” at the hospital in Treviso where she is being treated.

Vonn, who holds the record of 12 World Cup victories in Cortina, returned to ski racing in December 2024, following surgery to insert a partial titanium replacement in her right knee in April of that year.

She was the top speed racer this season entering the Olympics, winning two downhills and finishing on the podium in seven of the eight World Cup races that she finished. She came in fourth in the other one.

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — For Italy, it was a double-gold night in doubles luge. And USA Luge made history, just not the kind the Americans have been waiting forever to enjoy.

Emanuel Rieder and Simon Kainzwaldner of Italy rallied in the second heat to win the Olympic men’s doubles gold medal at the Milan Cortina Games on Wednesday night, finishing in 1 minute, 45.086 seconds. That win for the home country came about an hour after Andrea Voetter and Marion Oberhofer won the women’s doubles luge race.

“No words, I’ve lost my voice now,” Rieder said. “I’ve been screaming too much. I’m super happy.”

Thomas Steu and Wolfgang Kindl of Austria were second in 1:45.154 and Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt of Germany – the back-to-back-to-back Olympic champions coming into Wednesday – gave up their crown but still medaled, finishing third in 1:45.176.

They won gold in Sochi, Pyeongchang and Beijing, taking every men’s doubles gold at the Olympics since Andreas Linger and Wolfgang Linger won the race for Austria at the 2010 Vancouver Games.

For the U.S., Marcus Mueller and Ansel Haugsjaa – junior world champions two years ago – were the leaders at the midway point of the two-run race, making some Olympic history for USA Luge.

No American sled had ever had the lead in an Olympic race with one run to go; for that matter, no American sled had ever held the lead after any full heat.

But a mistake in the second run doomed their shot at giving USA Luge its first-ever Olympic title, and they finished sixth in 1:45.293.

“We were feeling pretty good. It was just a small mistake … it was so close in the end,” Mueller said. “To do all that and be sixth, you can’t be so unhappy.”

Zack DiGregorio and Sean Hollander of the U.S. were eighth in 1:45.467. Hollander raced on his 26th birthday.

“It’s tough when you put down two clean race runs, and you expect it to have a little bit more speed,” DiGregorio said. “Didn’t find that speed today, but that’s part of the sport.”

MILAN — Juraj Slafkovsky had Slovakia’s only two goals four years ago in the first men’s hockey game at the Beijing Olympics, a convincing loss to Finland.

Slafkovsky again scored twice in the tournament opener. Only this time, Slovakia upset Finland 4-1 on Wednesday to get the first Olympics with NHL players in more than a decade off to a stunning start.

“This is way better — a way better feeling to win,” Slafkovsky said.

With Slafkovsky, the MVP in 2022, picking up where he left off at the Olympics and goaltender Samuel Hlavaj stopping 39 of the 40 shots he faced, Slovakia served noticed by knocking off a medal favorite that it should not be taken lightly despite having only seven NHL players, while all but one on Finland’s roster plays in the league.

“We are kind of that team no one’s really expecting us to win much of the games,” alternate captain Martin Fehervary said. “We haven’t won against Finland for a long, long time. I felt like this is the day. I felt like this is the time, and we did it.”

Slafkovsky, who now plays for the Montreal Canadiens, scored the first goal of this tournament less than eight minutes in, skating through Finland’s defense and sliding the puck past a helpless Juuse Saros. After Dalibor Dvorsky scored with 13 minutes left to put Slovakia ahead, Slafkovsky wired a shot past Saros on the power play and pumped his fist to the crowd.

“I guess the Olympics are fitting to him,” defenseman Erik Cernak said. “He’s playing well at the Olympics. I’m really happy for him. He’s playing well in Montreal. Now, he brought the same play, same everything.”

Hlavaj had a lot to do with the initial underdog story on the ice, fending off one onslaught after another as Slovakia was outshot 18-5 in the first period and 40-25 overall. Fehervary called Hlavaj, a Minnesota Wild prospect playing in the American Hockey League in Iowa, Slovakia’s best player.

“To be honest, I’ve never seen him play before,” Cernak said. “But he was outstanding. He kept us in it in important moments.”

Unable to watch while the U.S. team he runs was practicing next door, Wild general manager Bill Guerin said “it’s great” that Hlavaj got off to such a strong start at the Olympics.

It was not so good for Saros, the Nashville Predators starter who allowed three goals on 24 shots in defeat.

Finland next plays archrival Sweden on Friday, and it’s possible Vancouver’s Kevin Lankinen gets the nod, just as he did in replacing Saros in net at the 4 Nations Face-Off a year ago.

“It’s too early to say,” Finland coach Antti Pennanen said. “I like how Juuse played, and it wasn’t an easy game for him because not that many shots.”

Eeli Tolvanen, also a returning Olympian after playing in 2018, scored Finland’s only goal. Adam Ruzicka scored into an empty net to seal it for Slovakia and deal Finland an unexpected early defeat.

“Obviously, it wasn’t the start we wanted,” captain Mikael Granlund said. “We all know the most important games are ahead of us. No panic.”

Sweden gets a scare from Italy before winning 5-2

Sweden defenseman Victor Hedman was not surprised Finland lost to Slovakia because “this is the Olympic Games. We’ve seen a lot of upsets.”

He and his heavily favored teammates had some dicey times when it looked as if they’d be on the wrong end of an all-time shocker against host Italy before taking the lead midway through and pulling away to win 5-2.

“There are no easy games in tournaments like this, and the gap isn’t what it used to be years ago,” said captain Gabriel Landeskog, who scored the tying goal after Sweden fell behind when Italy’s Luca Frigo scored four minutes in. “A little bit of rust, some things to clean up, but that’s to be expected. I thought it was a hard-fought game, no doubt.”

When Gustav Forsling scored to give Sweden the lead before the end of the first period, it looked as if it was the goal that would end the long-shot bid.

Instead, Italy players went into intermission knowing they could play with one of the best teams in the world and showed it early in the second when Canadian import Matt Bradley tied it again.

Sweden went ahead for good when William Nylander scored late in the second, and Italy goalie Damian Clara left midway through the third after his right leg cramped up making one of his 46 saves on 49 shots. That cut short an incredible performance by the Anaheim Ducks prospect drafted in the second round in 2023.

“He played unbelievable,” Italy’s Dustin Gazley said. “If it wasn’t for him, the score could have been way higher than it was. That was his job, and that’s what he did for us and it was huge to have him back there stopping pucks.”

Mika Zibanejad scored on backup Davide Fadani, who relieved Clara, and Hedman’s empty-net goal sealed it. The all-NHL Swedes had 60 shots to Italy’s 22.

“You put up 60 shots, usually you win those games – and we did,” Hedman said. “We knew Clara was a big, big talent. Anaheim is lucky to have a prospect like that. He played unbelievable and kept them in the game. We could’ve been a little bit more direct, but it felt like a typical opening game and nerves, even though it doesn’t matter who you play.”

Casey Wasserman’s job as chair of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics organizing committee is safe after the LA28 board’s executive committee met Wednesday to discuss his appearance in recently released government files on Jeffrey Epstein.

Wasserman has not been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, but documents released by the Justice Department revealed that in 2003 he exchanged flirtatious emails with Ghislaine Maxwell, who years later would be accused of helping Epstein recruit and sexually abuse his victims.

LA28 said that, with help from an outside legal firm, it conducted a review of Wasserman’s past interactions with Epstein and Maxwell, with Wasserman’s full cooperation.

“We found Mr. Wasserman’s relationship with Epstein and Maxwell did not go beyond what has already been publicly documented,” the executive committee said in a statement. “The Executive Committee of the Board has determined that based on these facts, as well as the strong leadership he has exhibited over the past ten years, Mr. Wasserman should continue to lead LA28 and deliver a safe and successful Games.”

Exchanges between the two included Wasserman telling Maxwell, “I think of you all the time. So, what do I have to do to see you in a tight leather outfit?”

There is also an email exchange about massages and one in which Maxwell asked whether it will be foggy enough during an upcoming visit “so that you can float naked down the beach and no one can see you unless they are close up?”

Wasserman responded, “or something like that.”

In a statement Jan. 31, Wasserman said, “I deeply regret my correspondence with Ghislaine Maxwell,” which he said occurred “long before her horrific crimes came to light.” He added that he “never had a personal or business relationship” with Epstein.

Last week, the IOC declined to put any additional public pressure on Wasserman to step aside.

Wasserman was among a handful of entertainment industry figures, including actors Kevin Spacey and Chris Tucker, who accompanied former U.S. President Bill Clinton aboard Epstein’s jet for a philanthropy-related trip to Africa in 2002. In a statement this week to the Los Angeles Times, Wasserman said it was the only time he met Epstein.

In 2021, Maxwell was convicted on five counts of sex trafficking and abuse of minors. She is serving a 20-year prison sentence. Epstein killed himself in a New York jail cell in August 2019, a month after being indicted on federal sex-trafficking charges.

A number of athletes and musicians — including retired U.S. women’s soccer star Abby Wambach, Grammy-winning singer Chappell Roan and indie rock band Beach Bunny — have cut ties with Wasserman’s eponymous sports marketing and talent-management company following the release of the government files.

Wambach posted on Instagram that she had left the Wasserman agency after reading his emails contained in the Epstein files.

“Casey should resign,” Wambach wrote. “He should leave, so more people like me don’t have to.”

Some members of the Los Angeles City Council and the L.A. County Board of Supervisors have called for Wasserman to step down from his Olympics post.