Vonn, 41, dominated her World Cup season prior to the 2026 Winter Olympics, where she crashed 13 seconds into her downhill run
Lindsey Vonn prior to her crash at the Olympics.Credit : Julian Finney/Getty
Lindsey Vonn has the receipts to show she deserved her spot at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
The 41-year-old skier is currently confined to a hospital bed after she crashed during the women’s downhill final on Feb. 8, and “wanted to recap my season for all the haters out there that didn’t understand what it means to earn your spot,” she wrote in an Instagram post on Saturday, Feb. 21.
Her post included a video from her World Cup races in St. Moritz, Val d’Isere, Zauchensee and Tarvisio, all of which ended with her on the podium.
“It wasn’t all for nothing… it wasn’t a dream… although sitting in this hospital bed it seems far away now… But I did it,” Vonn wrote. “I came back. I won. I showed up and did what most thought was impossible at my age with a partial knee replacement. These memories I’ll have forever and I’m grateful for every one of them. Every moment was amazing. Every moment was worth it.”
She admitted, though, that the comments from “haters” who criticized her for coming back to the Olympics at her age, and then again after she tore her ACL a week before the Olympics and still competed, “stung.”
“One thing that stung was when people said I was selfish and should give my Olympic spot to someone else,” she said. “So… I just wanted to recap my season for all the haters out there that didn’t understand what it means to earn your spot, and on a more positive note, to just reflect…”
Vonn then wrote out exactly what she achieved this season: “#1 in the downhill standings. 3rd in [Super-G] standings. 2x Downhill wins. On every downhill podium all season. 7/8 podiums overall (only one 4th place).”
“It’s not impossible until it’s done,” she added. “I didn’t reach my ultimate goal…. But I still did a lot. Thank you to those who believed! ❤️🙏🏻”
Vonn is now back in the U.S. after four surgeries in Italy in the immediate aftermath of her crash. The five-time Olympian suffered a complex tibia fracture, and stayed in the country to stabilize the injury enough that she could fly home — though it required Vonn to stay in a hospital bed the entire flight and journey between the two hospitals.
She underwent a fifth surgery on Friday, and admitted she’s “struggling.”
“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 two X-ray images of her metal-filled tibia.
“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, before promising, “Will explain the injury and what it all means soon.”
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