Lindsey Vonn went for it. Who are we to second-guess?
- - Lindsey Vonn went for it. Who are we to second-guess?
Dan Wolken February 8, 2026 at 4:23 AM
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LIVIGNO, Italy – It was devastating to watch, even more brutal to hear.
For a nation that had become enraptured in Lindsey Vonn’s comeback story and the norm-defying attempt to win an Olympic medal without an ACL in her left knee, the helpless cries of pain as she lay on her back and the mountain fell silent will be hard to erase from memory.
Downhill skiing is often breathtaking. It is sometimes gruesome. And for the second time in nine days, the images of an American sports heroine being strapped to a board and lifted into a helicopter churned the stomach.
But that’s skiing down a mountain at 80 miles per hour. That’s the risk Vonn signed up for when she decided to compete in an Olympics nine days after an ACL tear during a different competition in Switzerland. That’s what happens sometimes when you go for it.
And that’s exactly what Vonn did.
We may never know for sure, but Vonn’s knee may not have even been the culprit for crashing just 13 seconds into her run. If anything, the chain of events that led to her breakdown Sunday started by taking a highly aggressive line into a curve with all her weight shifted to the right — not the injured left leg. Instead, it was her right pole getting tangled with the gate that threw her off balance, launching her into the air, onto her stomach as she hit the snow and then onto her back as she slid several more feet.
Just like that, it was over. And awful.
A giant screen shows US' Lindsey Vonn crashing as she competes in the women's downhill event during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre in Cortina d'Ampezzo on February 8, 2026. (Photo by Tiziana FABI / AFP via Getty Images) (TIZIANA FABI via Getty Images)
Like clockwork, there will undoubtedly be detractors who say Vonn shouldn’t have tried something so dangerous, so audacious.
But Vonn, 41, has lived her entire life audaciously. She also knows more about what can happen on a ski slope, for better and worse, than the rest of us put together.
She understood what could happen. She deserved the chance. And now, only she can answer whether the consequences for her body were worth it.
It’s not our business.
Was it sickening to see play out in real time? Of course. But when we turn on a sporting event, especially in the Winter Olympics, we are not guaranteed an experience free of discomfort.
Many of these sports are dangerous. Usually, the athletes make them look easy. Sometimes we take for granted their tolerance for risk.
But this one slaps us all in the face — not just because it’s one of the most accomplished winter sport athletes in the world but because her pain, as it played out on television for millions of people, connects deeply to our own sense of fear and mortality.
Yes, this injury will cast a pall over these Olympics. How can it not? What we watched Sunday wasn’t just sports, it was a microcosm of life. At some point, no matter how invincible we might feel, it can all change in an instant.
Fans with a flag of USA's Lindsey Vonn after she crashed out during the Women's Alpine Downhill Skiing at the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre, Cortina d'Ampezzo, on day two of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. Picture date: Sunday February 8, 2026. (Photo by Andrew Milligan/PA Images via Getty Images) (Andrew Milligan - PA Images via Getty Images)
Vonn had no doubt she could do it. Her training runs were fine. She spent part of Saturday beefing with detractors on social media, oozing the kind of confidence that made you realize she wasn’t just there to glide down a hill.
She was all-in. Maybe to her detriment.
Some will say it was all a delusion, that doctors shouldn’t have given her the green light, that she should have given her spot in the field to a younger, healthier American.
Stop.
Are you really going to tell one of the legends of the sport, someone who came out of retirement and almost immediately re-established herself one of the best in the world, that she can’t have this chance? Please.
I asked downhill ski racer Bryan Bennett about that notion Saturday after his final Olympic run.
“She’s won Cortina I don’t know how many times,” he said. “She understands that downhill. Her equipment’s obviously been in a good place. If she can just hold it together for one run … I don’t think she has to risk incredibly. It’s not like she has to do anything crazy special.”
Perhaps one day, after the injuries heal, Vonn will tell us whether that’s what cost her. For now, we can only go off what we saw on television — and what it looked like was an all-time skiing talent trying desperately, maybe too desperately, to win a race the rest of us just wanted her to finish.
But our feelings don’t matter.
Vonn has crashed before, blown out her knee before, felt pain few of us can fathom before. She knew it could happen again and tried anyway.
She went for it. Who are we to second-guess?
Source: “AOL Sports”
