Vonn, 41, showed the dozens of screws and plates now in her leg to repair her complex tibia fracture
Lindsey Vonn made it through her fifth surgery in the aftermath of her brutal crash at the 2026 Winter Olympics, but she’s admittedly “struggling” with the severity of her injury.
Vonn, 41, shared an update from the hospital on Friday, Feb. 20, after her latest surgery, her first since flying back to the U.S.
“Made it through surgery… it took a bit more than 6 hours to complete. As you can see, it required a lot of plates and screws to put back together but Dr Hackett did an incredible job,” the skier wrote in an Instagram post, which included a video of her getting wheeled around the hospital, a photo of the dozens of screws and plates that were going into her leg and two X-ray images of her metal-filled tibia.
Lindsey Vonn shares photos of her surgery materials.Lindsey Vonn/Instagram
“With the extent of the trauma, I’ve been struggling a bit post op and have not yet been able to be discharged from the hospital just yet… almost there,” Vonn wrote. “Baby steps.”
“Will explain the injury and what it all means soon,” she promised.
The five-time Olympian already underwent four surgeries while she was in Italy, at a hospital in Trevizo where she was airlifted after her crash during the women’s downhill event on Feb. 8. Vonn suffered a complex tibia fracture and needed the four surgeries to be able to safely fly back to the U.S., which she did via a private plane while confined to a hospital bed earlier this week.
In her Instagram post sharing her arrival back in the U.S., Vonn revealed that there was more to her injury than she thought.
“My injury was a lot more severe than just a broken leg. I’m still wrapping my head around it, what it means and the road ahead… but I’m going to give you more detail in the coming days,” she wrote on Feb. 17.
She emphasized in a post on Saturday, though, that she knew she “chose to take a risk” when she competed on a torn ACL.
“I was willing to risk and push and sacrifice for something I knew I was absolutely capable of doing,” she explained. “I will always take the risk of crashing while giving it my all, rather than not ski to my potential and have regret. I never want to cross finish line and say, ’what if?’ ”
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