“Nothing in life is guaranteed. That’s the gamble of chasing your dreams, you might fall but if you don’t try you’ll never know,” Vonn said
Kimberlee Speakman
Kimberlee Speakman is a digital writer at PEOPLE. She has been working at PEOPLE since 2022. She has also published stories in Forbes and worked in broadcast television as a reporter for Hawaii-based news station KHON2 News.
Lindsey Vonn is sharing a message of hope following her fourth surgery over a week after her crash at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
The 41-year-old skier revealed in an Instagram update on Saturday, Feb. 14, that she completed another surgery after suffering a complex tibia fracture during the Feb. 8 crash in the women’s downhill event and that she was given the green light to travel again.
“Surgery went well today! Thankfully I will be able to finally go back to the US 🇺🇸! Once I’m back I will give you more updates and info about my injury….,” she wrote alongside a video of herself skiing downhill.
In the clip, soundtracked by Cody Johnson’s “The Fall,” Vonn could be seen skiing fast amid a beautiful snowy mountain landscape. “This was my last run before my Olympic race. A classic Cortina day❤️thankful I have this memory,” she wrote in the comments section.
Lindsay Vonn/instagram
The song’s lyrics echoed the sentiment of her caption’s post-surgery update as she reflected on the hand she had been dealt and pleaded for fans not to feel sorry for what happened to her.
“I have been reading a lot of messages and comments saying that what has happened to me makes them sad. Please, don’t be sad,” Vonn said. “Empathy, love and support I welcome with an open heart, but please not sadness or sympathy. I hope instead it gives you strength to keep fighting, because that is what I am doing and that is what I will continue to do. Always.”
She went on to say that she did not “stand in the starting gate unaware of the potential consequences” and “knew” what she was doing. She said she “chose to take a risk,” similar to all the other skiers in the race — but in the end “the mountain always holds the cards.”
“I was willing to risk and push and sacrifice for something I knew I was absolutely capable of doing,” she explained. “I will always take the risk of crashing while giving it my all, rather than not ski to my potential and have regret. I never want to cross finish line and say, ’what if?’ ”
She continued, “And to be perfectly honest, I was stronger physically in that moment than I have been often in the past… [and] mentally I was perfect. Clear, focused, hungry, aggressive yet completely calm… just as I had practiced over the past few months when I was on the podium in every downhill this season…. But just because I was ready, that didn’t guarantee me anything.”
“Nothing in life is guaranteed. That’s the gamble of chasing your dreams, you might fall but if you don’t try you’ll never know. So please, don’t feel sad. The ride was worth the fall,” she added, quoting Johnson’s song.
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The athlete — who is recovering at Ca Foncello hospital in Trevizo, Italy — concluded her post saying that she doesn’t have “regrets” and that her love for skiing “remains.” She also hinted that this wouldn’t be the last time people would see her “stand on the top of the mountain once more,” and that she was “looking forward to” that time.
Vonn was competing at the women’s downhill final when 13 seconds into her run, she got caught on one of the markers and flipped through the air multiple times before landing in the snow. The skier was then airlifted from the course about 15 minutes later.
In a Feb. 9 post on Instagram, Vonn revealed she was just a few inches off during her run, which caused the fall. She said it was unrelated to her recent ACL injury, which she sustained just one week before the Olympics, and that her latest injury would require multiple surgeries to fix properly.
Her return to the Olympics this year marked her first since 2018, and her fifth altogether. Her first gold medal came in 2010 at the downhill competition at the Vancouver Games, where she also won bronze for the Super-G. Her most recent Olympic medal came at PyeongChang in 2018 with her third-place finish in the downhill race.
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