The way Lindsey Vonn sees it, tearing her ACL may have been a blessing in disguise.
For if she hadn’t suffered that injury roughly a week before her horrifying crash at the start of the 2026 Winter Olympics that shattered her left leg, she may have had her leg amputated, she revealed in an Instagram video Monday morning after being released from the hospital.
The 41-year-old Vonn said she had additional fractures beyond the tibia and developed compartment syndrome, where painful pressure builds within the muscles and blood flow is restricted.
“By far the most extreme and painful and challenging injury I’ve ever faced in my entire life, times 100,” Vonn said.
Dr. Tom Hackett, an orthopedic surgeon, accompanied Vonn to Milan after she decided to compete with her left ACL tear, and she credits him for preventing amputation by performing a fasciotomy. Hackett “filleted it open” and let the leg “breathe,” Vonn said.
“Dr. Tom Hackett saved my life. He saved my leg from being amputated,” she said. “If I hadn’t torn my ACL, Tom wouldn’t have been there.”
Hackett then performed a six-hour surgery back in the States to rebuild Vonn’s leg. She said she had “very low hemoglobin” due to blood loss and needed a blood transfusion.
On top of all that, Vonn said she also broke her right ankle.
“I’ll be in a wheelchair for a while,” Vonn said, adding she’ll need crutches for two months when she can ditch the wheelchair.
Vonn, a three-time Olympic medalist who became the first American woman to win gold in the downhill at the 2010 Games, grew emotional toward the end of her video as she described the pain she’s endured.
But she vowed to keep pushing.
“I’d rather go down swinging than not try at all,” Vonn said. “It really knocked me down, but I’m like Rocky. I’ll just keep getting back up.”