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VAIL, Colo. (AP) — Lindsey Vonn, the renowned American skier, revealed that she came perilously close to losing her left leg after a harrowing accident during the women’s downhill event at the Milan Cortina Olympics.
In a candid Instagram update on Monday, Vonn detailed that her injuries were more severe than the initial tibia fracture she disclosed. The injury occurred when she hit a gate and veered off the course just 13 seconds into her run on February 8.
The 41-year-old athlete explained that the crash resulted in compartment syndrome in her leg. This condition arises when intense pressure builds within a muscle, often due to bleeding or swelling, hindering blood flow and potentially causing irreversible damage if not promptly addressed.
“The trauma was so severe in that part of my body that excessive blood flow created pressure, essentially crushing everything,” Vonn explained.
Vonn expressed her gratitude to Dr. Tom Hackett, an orthopedic surgeon associated with both her and Team USA, for performing a fasciotomy that ultimately saved her leg.
“He filleted it open (and) let it breathe, and he saved me,” she said.
Vonn noted that Hackett was only in Cortina because she was competing after tearing the ACL in her left knee shortly before the Olympics.
“If I hadn’t had done that, Tom wouldn’t have been there (and he) wouldn’t have been able to save my leg,” she said.
Vonn, who said she has been discharged from the hospital, also broke her right ankle in the crash.
“It has been quite the journey and by far the most extreme and painful and challenging injury I’ve ever faced in my entire life times 100,” she said.
Vonn underwent multiple surgeries during a week-long stay at a hospital in Treviso, Italy, following the accident. She credited both Hackett and Italian doctors for their efforts to repair her leg, which she said was “in pieces” following the accident.
She says she struggled with pain and blood loss in the immediate aftermath and had to receive a transfusion to help raise her hemoglobin levels.
Vonn, who said she is “very much immobile,” is confined to a wheelchair at the moment, but has turned her attention to her rehab and is working her way toward being able to use crutches. She estimated it will take about a year for the bones in her left leg to heal. Only after that will doctors be able to go in and repair the torn ACL, which played no role in the crash.
“It’s going to be a long road,” she said. “I always fight and we keep going.”
Vonn stressed she had “no regrets” about her comeback following a six-year retirement or her decision to ski at the Olympics despite the knee injury.
“I wish it had ended differently, but I’d rather go down swinging than not try at all,” said Vonn, who was atop the World Cup series rankings in the downhill when she arrived in Cortina. “I think what I was able to achieve was more than anyone expected to begin with. … This year was incredible and so worth everything.”
She likened her injuries to “one blip on the radar.” She did not go into any sort of detail about her competitive career, though her father, Alan Kildow, told The Associated Press shortly after the accident he would like her to retire.
“Life is life and we have to take the punches that come,” Vonn said. “Going to do the best I can with this one. It really knocked me down. But I’m like Rocky. I’ll just keep getting back up.”