Lindsey Vonn still has a long rehab journey in front of her following her dramatic crash at the 2026 Winter Olympics — but things were almost much worse.
After undergoing multiple surgeries in Italy to repair the extensive damage done to her left leg, Vonn, 41, awoke in the middle of the night in the ICU screaming in agony when her leg would not stop swelling.
“It’s getting worse, and she’s not responding to monster amounts of fentanyl, morphine, oxycodone, like, every narcotic you can imagine,” Dr. Tom Hackett, the head physician for Team USA Ski and Snowboard, recalled in a Vanity Fair cover story published on Thursday, March 26.
Hackett could tell Vonn was experiencing compartment syndrome, a condition where pressure mounts in the leg, restricting blood flow and causing massive nerve damage.
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“I’m sure you’ve seen hot dogs or brats on a grill. They get more and more swollen. Then all of a sudden, they burst. They crack. That’s basically what happens with compartment syndrome,” Hackett explained. “There was a very significant chance that she was going to lose all function of her leg, if not the leg itself. Best-case scenario in those situations is, you might keep your leg, but it’s going to be useless.”
Vonn blacked out due to the pain but regained consciousness before surgery was performed.
“Dr. Hackett was on my left. There were a bunch of doctors and nurses around me,” she remembered. “He said, ‘Don’t worry, I’m going to save your leg. I got this. I’m scrubbing in.’”
Vonn was put under anesthesia, and Hackett performed a fasciotomy, which cuts into the connective tissue surrounding muscles to relieve the pressure.
After the initial surgery, Vonn was still forced to undergo multiple procedures to finish the job.
“It was all about trying to save her skin and muscles, basically,” Hackett explained.
Now back home in the States, Vonn reflected on the chaotic experience of arriving at the hospital following her crash — which completely tore her ACL — and the CT scan that she’ll never forget.
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“Halfway through, I started sweating,” she told Vanity Fair. “I was just in such extreme pain. I screamed at the top of my lungs: ‘Get me out.’ It just wouldn’t dissipate. It wouldn’t let up. It’s seared into my brain.”
As for what comes next, Vonn has not completely shut the door on another return to skiing.
“I have no idea what my life will be like in two years or three years or four years,” she said. “I could have two kids by then. I could have no kids and want to race again. I could live in Europe. I could be doing anything.”
Vonn added, “It’s hard to tell with this injury. It’s so f***ed up. I really feel like that was a horrible last run to end my career on.”
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