Lindsey Vonn says she has “no regrets” in her first statement since her terrifying crash at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Vonn, 41, broke her silence in an Instagram post on Monday, Feb. 9, just hours after crashing during the women’s downhill skiing final at the Milan Cortina Games and getting airlifted to the hospital for surgery.

“Yesterday my Olympic dream did not finish the way I dreamt it would,” she began her post. “It wasn’t a story book ending or a fairy tail, it was just life. I dared to dream and had worked so hard to achieve it. Because in Downhill ski racing the difference between a strategic line and a catastrophic injury can be as small as 5 inches.”

Vonn explained that those 5 inches in which she caught her ski pole on a course marker caused her to twist “and resulted in my crash.”

 

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“My ACL and past injuries had nothing to do with my crash whatsoever,” she added.

Vonn said she “sustained a complex tibia fracture” that is now okay, “but will require multiple surgeries to fix properly.”

“While yesterday did not end the way I had hoped, and despite the intense physical pain it caused, I have no regrets,” she continued. “Standing in the starting gate yesterday was an incredible feeling that I will never forget. Knowing I stood there having a chance to win was a victory in and of itself. I also knew that racing was a risk. It always was and always will be an incredibly dangerous sport.”

“I tried. I dreamt. I jumped,” the five-time Olympian said.

“I hope if you take away anything from my journey it’s that you all have the courage to dare greatly,” she continued. “Life is too short not to take chances on yourself. Because the only failure in life is not trying. I believe in you, just as you believed in me.”

Vonn’s crash started when she caught her ski pole on a course marker and tumbled through the air multiple times before falling to the snow. She was put on a stretcher and airlifted to Ca Foncello hospital in Trevizo, Italy, where she underwent surgery to “stabilize” a fracture in her left leg, the hospital said in a statement, according to Reuters.

U.S. Ski & Snowboarding said earlier that afternoon, in a statement shared with PEOPLE, that Vonn was “stable.”

“Lindsey sustained an injury, but is in stable condition and in good hands with a team of American and Italian physicians,” the organization said.

Vonn had injured the same leg a week earlier, “completely” rupturing her ACL in her final World Cup race before the Olympics. She decided to race anyway, in what will be her final Olympics, telling reporters at her press conference, “I think this would be the best comeback I’ve done so far. The most dramatic, that’s for sure.”

To learn more about all the Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, come to people.com to check out ongoing coverage before, during and after the games. Watch the Milan Cortina Olympics and Paralympics, beginning Feb. 6, on NBC and Peacock.

Source:People