Winter Olympics live: Lindsey Vonn battles through ACL rupture in women’s downhill

Lindsey Vonn was expected to be one of the biggest stars at this year’s events as she has a storied history at the Winter Olympics – dating back to Salt Lake City in 2002, over two decades ago.

She also competed at the Winter Olympics in 2006, 2010 and 2018. In 2010, in Vancouver she took home the gold medal for the women’s Alpine downhill.

Vonn announced her retirement in 2018 and said she would hang up her skis competitively the next year as “Physically, I’ve gotten to the point where it doesn’t make sense…”

Five years later, in 2024, Vonn announced her return to the sport competitively after successful knee replacement surgery.

On Friday 30 January in Switzerland, Lindsey Vonn crashed in a World Cup downhill in Crans-Montana, Switzerland.

She was later taken to the hospital and after three days of physical therapy and doctors’ advice, Vonn skied on Tuesday before talking to the press.

“My knee is not swollen, and with the help of a knee brace, I am confident that I can compete on Sunday,” Vonn said.

“So this is not obviously what I had hoped for. I know what my chances were before the crash and I know my chances aren’t the same as it stands today but I know there’s still a chance. And as long as there’s a chance, I will try.

“I will do everything in my power to be in the starting gate.”

Lindsey Vonn has already taken to the slopes with her injured knee, surviving practice on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

The final session, when the medals will be decided, will take place on Sunday 8 February (today), beginning at 10:30am GMT.

Viewers in the UK can watch the action on TNT Sports and discovery+, with coverage starting at 10am.

As Lindsey Vonn was airlifted off the slope at Crans-Montana nine days ago it looked like her hopes of a fourth Olympic medal were over. Those hopes had already looked unlikely a season and a half ago when she made her comeback after six years’ retirement. But she had proved everyone wrong multiple times already; it would be foolish to expect her not to do so again.

The Crans-Montana crash left her with a completely ruptured ACL in her left knee, a bone bruise and meniscus damage. It is only the latest in a litany of broken bones, concussions, and other serious injuries which have punctuated her career.

In her final race before retirement, the world championships downhill in 2019, she wore two knee braces to stabilise a torn lateral collateral ligament, three tibia fractures and a bone bruise. All of that couldn’t prevent her from winning bronze. In the 2013 world championships she tore her ACL and MCL in her right knee and fractured her tibia; later in 2013 she partially tore her right ACL again.

That only skims the surface; the thought of what else she could have achieved without those misfortunes probably keeps her rivals up at night.

And now, with one titanium knee – a knee replacement having fixed the pain that drove her to retire – and one completely destabilised one, she is still going.

Lindsey Vonn will take to the Cortina slopes with a ruptured ACL as she battles for a medal against all the odds in the women’s downhill.

The race marks the return of the legendary American skier, six years after she retired from the sport.

Downhill is the 41-year-old’s speciality and boasts an Olympic gold medal in the event, which she won at Vancouver 2010, but hopes of a victorious comeback have been catastrophically hit by a serious knee injury suffered less than a fortnight out from the finals.

While the setback looked certain to rule her out entirely, Vonn has pushed on with teammate Mikaela Shiffrin, one of only two women more successful at World Cup level than four-time winner Vonn, saying: “If anyone can do it, she can do it.”

She’ll face stiff competition for a place on the podium, however, with the aptly named Breezy Johnson leading the field as 2025 world champion, while World Cup champion Federica Brignone hopeful to bring host nation Italy a medal.

Hello and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of the women’s downhill finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Cortina.

We’ll have all the latest updates, build-up and action from the slopes, right here!