American skier Lindsey Vonn announced she will undergo her ninth surgery to remove hardware and reconstruct her anterior cruciate ligament following a severe tibial fracture sustained during the women’s downhill event at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics.
Vonn posted a video on her personal Instagram account detailing the upcoming procedure to remove all plates and screws from her left leg. “Finally, has arrived the moment,” she said in her video.
“This will be my ninth surgery and I’m praying it’s the last,” Vonn wrote in the post’s description. The 42-year-old athlete addressed her more than 3.5 million followers regarding the procedure’s uncertainties.
“There are still things that could change in surgery, so we’ll have to wait and see how it goes, but I’ll keep you updated on my progress when I come out and recover,” Vonn said. She thanked supporters for nine months of encouragement following the accident.
The procedure involves extracting the internal hardware previously installed to stabilize a complex tibial fracture. Vonn sustained the injury just 13 seconds into the Olympic downhill race on February 8 at the Tofana piste in the Dolomites.
“They are going to remove all the plates and screws; that is, all the material I have, in order to be able to place a new anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), because I still don’t have an ACL,” Vonn explained. Orthopedic teams initially deferred the ligament repair due to the extensive metal plating required for the bone.
The prolonged wait allowed the fractured bone to heal sufficiently. “My bone has already healed, which is great news,” Vonn said. Removing the fixation screws leaves localized bone voids that require subsequent physiological remodeling and healing.
The initial trauma triggered acute compartment syndrome, a dangerous condition where increased pressure within the fascial compartments compromises vascular perfusion. Dr. Tom Hackett performed an emergent fasciotomy to relieve the pressure and preserve the limb.
“He opened both sides of my leg, let it breathe and saved me from being amputated,” Vonn said. The extensive soft-tissue injury and subsequent fluid loss also necessitated a clinical blood transfusion to address severe hemoglobin deficiency.
Dr. Bertrand Sonnery-Cottet, an orthopedic and knee specialist at the Santy Orthopedic Center in Lyon, assessed the severity of the injury through French media commentary. “For a high-level athlete, it is almost the worst possible injury,” Sonnery-Cottet told RMC Sports, noting that such fracture patterns typically stem from high-energy vehicular accidents.
Vonn previously accumulated eight surgical interventions following the Olympic fall, including a six-hour procedure involving extensive plates and screws. She also sustained a right ankle fracture during the same incident, which prolonged her mobility restrictions.
Regarding her competitive athletic future, Vonn maintained caution after returning from a 2019 retirement to compete in Italy. “I’m not ready to talk about my future in skiing,” Vonn said. “I’ve been focused on recovering from my injury and getting back to normal.”
