Lindsey Vonn, a famous alpine skier, crashed hard during her last World Cup downhill race. This worried people just a week before the opening ceremony of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics.
On January 30, 2026, Vonn lost control after jumping off the upper part of the Crans-Montana course in Switzerland and fell quickly into safety netting. She lay on the slope for a few minutes, got medical help, and then skied down, favoring her left knee and shaking her head in pain. The 41-year-old, who was the downhill leader in a red bib, stopped twice on her way down to take care of her injury.
The event happened exactly seven days before the Milan-Cortina opening and two days before the women’s downhill on February 8 in Cortina d’Ampezzo, where Vonn has won 12 World Cup races. Vonn, who had a partial knee replacement on her right knee in 2024, was going for gold in her fifth Olympics, which included super-G and team events. There are reports that she was flown to a hospital for tests, but her condition is still unclear.
Three of the first six skiers crashed because they couldn’t see well and the conditions were bad. These were Austria’s Ortl and Norway’s Mons. The race was called off shortly after Vonn finished. At the end, Vonn hugged her teammate Jackie Wiles before going to the medical tents.
