Lindsey Vonn will compete in Olympics despite torn

MILAN — A partial knee alternative in her proper leg wasn’t enough to stop Lindsey Vonn from pursuing her Olympic comeback. Neither will a new left torn anterior cruciate ligament.

Vonn revealed she suffered a torn ACL in a crash last week but stays centered on racing in the Milan-Cortina Olympics.

“If my knee is not stable, I can’t compete and at the moment, it is stable and it is strong,” Vonn said during a digital press convention from Cortina d’Ampezzo. “… So far so good but we have to take it day by day. But if it remains the way it is now, I think I’m pretty solid.”

The 41-year-old Vonn was named to the Olympic group seven years after she retired from the game. She underwent a partial knee alternative in April 2024 and quietly started her comeback. She proved herself as more than just a feel-good story by ending second in the Super G in Sun Valley, Idaho last March for her first World Cup podium in seven years and her first World Cup win since 2018 at St. Mortiz in Switzerland in December.

Vonn was racing at a World Cup event last week when she misplaced control while making an attempt to land a soar. She slid into the security netting. While a torn ACL usually sends athletes straight to the working room, Vonn said surgical procedure was not a dialogue.

“The Olympics are the only thing that I’m thinking about,” Vonn said. “Every day my knee’s gotten better and every day, we’re discussing with the full medical team, doctors, physios, everyone.”

The ladies’s downhill competitors begins Sunday. Vonn, who has hopes to also race in the Super G and the group event, said her “intention is to race everything.”