Lindsey Vonn crashed in the women’s downhill competition at the Winter Olympics as fellow American Breezy Johnson won an emotional gold in Cortina.
Vonn, 41, was competing nine days after rupturing ligaments in her left knee but hitting the first gate left her off balance, and her dreams of winning a medal in what she said will be her final Olympic downhill were over.
Vonn had successfully completed two training runs on the iconic Olimpia delle Tofane course but was airlifted off the piste after being tended to for a lengthy period.
World champion Johnson was in tears as her gold medal was confirmed after she clocked a blistering time of one minute 36.10 seconds.
The 30-year-old watched on the big screen at the finish line with her head in her hands when her team-mate crashed, having completed her run sixth while Vonn was 13th to go.
Germany’s Emma Aicher was pipped by 0.04 seconds and took the silver medal while Italian home favourite Sofia Goggia secured bronze.
Vonn was taking a huge risk by competing on Sunday having suffered the ACL injury in Switzerland in the last World Cup race before the Games but was determined to take to the course for her favoured event.
Stunned spectators applauded towards the helicopter as it carried her away from the piste which has brought her so much success in the past – with 12 of her 84 World Cup wins coming here.
Vonn had been unsure what her knee was capable of withstanding but had targeted the downhill as her favoured event while also being entered in the super-G and team events.
It is now unlikely she will compete in any of those, meaning her Olympic career has almost certainly come to a devastating end.
Vonn had appeared relaxed in the training runs and in the morning before the race. Her coach Aksel Lund Svindal said on Friday that he felt confident she could pull off something spectacular.
No stranger to a comeback, Vonn retired from the sport in 2019 as the most decorated female skier at the time but had suffered several serious leg injuries.
She made a shock return to the sport in 2024 having had a partial knee replacement in her right knee.
Vonn was tipped for the podium in Cortina following a successful 2025-26 season, in which she reached the podium in all five races, winning two.
But this latest crash leaves a significant doubt over whether Vonn will ski competitively again.
Vonn knew the dangers of competing but showed defiance in a media conference earlier this week, and had even hit back at a doctor on social media who claimed the injury was “not a fresh tear”.
She responded by saying her ACL is “100% torn” and had hoped to defy the odds by replicating the Olympic downhill gold medal she won in Vancouver in 2010.
Videos on social media had shown her training in the gym after she said she had no pain or swelling of the knee, while two smooth runs in the build-up to the race had given her, and her team and fans, confidence.
Four-time British Olympian Chemmy Alcott was emotional on BBC coverage and said she “never believed” it would end in this way.
“What we saw [is] that the top of the piste is really hard for a fit athlete. It is brutal, think about her family, her team and herself,” she said.
“We have to be realistic – the risk was really high, the risk she takes when she falls will double that. Her body will not be able to take that.”
Alcott added that the long delay would also mean the snow on the piste would begin to melt in the midday sun, meaning any racer who followed Vonn would struggle to match Johnson’s time.
The crash surely unsettled the rest of the field, too, and Andorra’s Cande Moreno was also airlifted off the piste after crashing into a gate.
Winter Olympics 2026
6-22 February
Milan-Cortina
Watch two live streams and highlights on BBC iPlayer (UK only), updates on BBC Radio 5 Live and live text commentary and video highlights on the BBC Sport website and app.
Originally published at BBC News
