Lindsey Vonn reveals surgeon saved her leg from amputation after devastating Olympic crash

A chilling silence fell over the downhill course at the famed Olympia delle Tofane. Lindsey Vonn, 41, had already pulled off what many saw as a miracle by making it to the 2026 Winter Olympics after tearing the ACL in her left knee just a week earlier in Switzerland.

But on Feb. 8, the world held its breath as cameras captured her brutal crash and the agonizing scream that followed when she broke her leg.

Fifteen days later, the American icon, winner of 84 World Cup races, three Olympic medals and eight world championship titles, has been released from a hospital in Treviso. Her message is striking.

“The surgeon, Dr. Tom Hackett, saved my leg from amputation. It’s going to be a long road, I’m in a wheelchair and very much immobile,” Vonn said. “But I have no regrets. I always fight, I keep going. I wish it had ended differently, but I’d rather go down swinging than not try at all.”

A long road back

Through tears, Vonn described what lies ahead in a lengthy recovery process.

“It will take around a year for all of the bones to heal and then I will decide if I want to take out all the metal or not, and then go back into surgery and finally fix my ACL,” she explained. “Life is life, you have to take the punches as they come.”

Finding a silver lining after the crash

The Minnesota-born star is trying to find a positive in the tragedy.

“If I hadn’t torn my ACL, which would I would have torn anyway with this crash, Tom wouldn’t have been there and he wouldn’t have been able to save my leg,” she said. “He saved me from amputation. I always say everything happens for a reason. I feel very lucky and grateful for him.”

Vonn also revealed the crash caused a broken ankle and that she needed a critical blood transfusion after one of several surgeries to boost her hemoglobin levels.

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