Lindsey Vonn returns to gym less than month after breaking leg following crash at Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics
ByTNT UK
Updated 06/03/2026 at 17:32 GMT
Lindsey Vonn is taking it "one day at a time" after returning to gym work less than a month since sustaining a complex break of her left leg at the 2026 Winter Olympics. The Team USA skier crashed out just 13 seconds into her run on the women's downhill course and had to be airlifted to hospital. She has since undergone multiple surgeries to fix the damage.
Watch: Vonn airlifted away in helicopter after big downhill crash
Video credit: TNT Sports
A serious leg break will not keep Lindsey Vonn down.
The Team USA skier has shared a video on her Instagram page showing her return to upper body work in the gym less than a month after breaking her leg at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Vonn crashed out after just 13 seconds of the women’s downhill course in Milano Cortina last month.
The 41-year-old clipped a gate at the top of the course and took a fall, fracturing her left leg in the process. The incident came nine days after she had ruptured her ACL on the same leg at a World Cup event.
Vonn only returned home earlier this week, albeit doing so for the first time after the death of one of her dogs, Leo, who passed away one day after she crashed.
The skier wrote in an Instagram post: "Home sweet home. Feels good to sleep in my own bed… but wheeling through the front door without Leo greeting me like always was a very hard reality.
"A reality I had to face. Along with many other hard realities that lay in front of me as I move forward…."
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Watch: Vonn suffers big crash to end downhill hopes
Video credit: TNT Sports
Vonn said last week that she almost had to have her leg amputated as the leg fracture resulted in compartment syndrome, which is an increase in pressure which can restrict blood flow.
"When you have so much trauma to one area of your body so that there’s too much blood and it gets stuck and it basically crushes everything," Vonn said.
She then credited Dr. Tom Hackett, who works for Team USA, for saving her leg, adding: "He did what’s called a fasciotomy. He cut open both sides of my leg and kind of filleted it open, so to speak, let it breathe and he saved me."
Yet Vonn is already back training as the Instagram video shows the skier getting out of a wheelchair and working out in the gym with her injured leg strapped.
"Definitely some hard times but still thankful… still working hard. The only goal is to get healthy. One day at a time," Vonn captioned the post.
The US star also joked that she is "bionic" after sharing images of the X-ray of her injured leg.
Vonn underwent multiple procedures as a result of the break, one of which left her with dozens of metal screws in her left leg.
"I’m bionic for real now," Vonn posted before adding: "Made it through surgery… it took a bit more than [six] hours to complete.
"As you can see, it required a lot of plates and screws to put back together but Dr Hackett did an incredible job. Thank you Dr Viola for the surgery assist as well!!"
Vonn has been documenting her recovery process online, opening up about the immense pain she has suffered as a result of the injury.
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