Lindsey Vonn’s right arm snagged a bright, neon-red slalom gate on Sunday, snapping the Alpine skier into a violent tumble during the women’s downhill final at the Games. The three-time Olympic medalist underwent two surgeries to treat a fracture of the lower leg and is in “stable condition.”
It’s an injury severe enough to topple Vonn’s Olympic dream — what even a ruptured ACL had not.
“Similar to ski racing, we take risks in life. We dream. We love. We jump. And sometimes we fall,” Vonn wrote on Instagram. “Sometimes our hearts are broken. Sometimes we don’t achieve the dreams we know we could have. But that is … the beauty of life; we can try.”
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Experts CNN spoke with said a fracture would have likely happened regardless of an ACL injury.
“I think she was so well aware of the risk of injury,” said Dr. Anthony Petrosini, an orthopedic surgeon at Hackensack Meridian Health who has not treated Vonn. “I don’t think this injury tells you that she made the right or wrong decision.”
Vonn said her past injuries “had nothing to do with [the] crash whatsoever.”
“While [Sunday] did not end the way I had hoped, and despite the intense physical pain it caused, I have no regrets,” the athlete wrote. “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.”
What is a tibial fracture?
Vonn announced on Monday that she suffered a complex tibial fracture. Vonn and the United States Ski and Snowboard Team did not share any additional information. The team declined to comment and directed CNN to Vonn’s Instagram post.
The tibia — also known as the shinbone — is the large, weight-bearing bone between the knee and ankle. Breaking the tibia takes immense force — the kind seen in car crashes and pedestrian collisions. In skiing, high speeds generate similar forces, which are often transmitted to the leg just above the edge of the ski boot.
“It’s what’s called a stress riser,” Petrosini said. “That lower part of the bone is protected, and right where it transitions to the unprotected part is where the fractures tend to occur.”
Why did Vonn undergo two surgeries?
According to Reuters, Vonn underwent two surgeries. The hospital where she was treated issued a statement to Reuters, stating that the first surgery stabilized the fracture.
Petrosini says that typically happens using internal fixation — a metal rod inserted into the bone to stabilize it — rather than external fixation — a metal frame attached to the outside of the leg that holds broken bone pieces together.
CNN could not confirm the nature of the second surgery or whether Vonn experienced any complications. Reuters reported that the procedures also prevented “complications linked to swelling and blood flow.”
Lindsey Vonn snagged a gate during the women’s downhill final on Sunday.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
Petrosini and other doctors CNN spoke with say tibial fractures are among the most common causes of a complication called compartment syndrome.
Leg muscles are organized into sections called compartments, which are surrounded by tight tissue that doesn’t stretch much. When bleeding or swelling inside one of these compartments builds up, pressure rises and begins to squeeze the muscles, nerves and blood vessels.
