Lindsey Vonn broke her leg in the first alpine race of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, on the Olympia Delle Tofane in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. She was considered a favorite to win the downhill race, despite tearing her left ACL the week before. Lindsey came back to the US Alpine Team last season at the age of 40, after a partial replacement of her right knee and getting bored of retirement. She's been dominant in downhill this year. She came into the Olympics with 5 podium finishes in the discipline from the current World Cup season, including two gold medals. As a lady in my 40s with bad knees, also retired from my ski career and getting bored of it, her comeback has been incredibly inspiring.
So, here's some movement analysis of Lindsey's run and crash. But first, I take a close look at the same section of the course by the race's winner, Breezy Johnson. Breezy skied a spectacular run and her win was well deserved. Despite her consistently competitive finishes over the last 11 years on the World Cup circuit, she's podiumed only 9 times. Her hard work certainly paid off!
Video of both runs, as well as the other 3 top racers, can be found HERE. I suggest watching it on .25 speed to pick out all the details, then watching it at normal speed to see how it all goes together.
- She makes a strong push out of the start gate, skates down the fall line then drops into a straight run and tuck with skis running flat on the snow.
- She tips her skis cleanly on edge and takes the middle line around the second gate. The video doesn't show her skis here but her angulation is perfect. It looks like a clean, smooth turn.
- Breezy takes off from the jump and sucks her legs up under her. She keeps her skis parallel to the snow, which allows her to absorb the landing and move immediately into the next turn.
- She takes the low line on gate #3.
- The snow between the third and fourth gate is very rough. Breezy is only racer #6 but the snow is already cut up.
- Breezy comes into this rough section with strong pressure on the outside (left) ski. She gets bounced and bucked around quite a bit at first.
- However, she reacts to the bumpy snow by softening her legs, pulling them up under her body and keeping light pressure on the left (outside) ski. This allows her legs to absorb the bumps with her knees and ankles, and allows her skis to glide through the snow, maintaining ski-snow contact.
- There’s also quite a bit of spray coming off her skis, which means she’s throwing on the brakes just a little (by adding leg rotation), in order to point her skis towards that next gate, which is placed wide across the hill.
- I assume the rough snow in this section is from forerunners and other racers extending the bottom of the third turn in order to control their speed out of the jump, and get across the hill to the 4th gate.
- Breezy absorbs the slight compression right before the 4th gate, and extends into a small jump as the terrain drops away from the 4th gate.
- Her right ski stays parallel and close to the snow. She lands lightly on it and quickly sets an edge with both skis.
- She finishes the run and wins! Go Breezy!
- Lindsey is skiing on a torn ACL in her left knee, which she injured in a ski crash the week before.
- Lindsey makes a strong push out of the gate and skates down the fall line, dropping into a tuck on the last skate stroke.
- She rolls her skis cleanly on edge and takes the middle line around the second gate with lots of angulation.
- She takes off and lands the jump after the second gate without incident. She fully transitions from right edges to left edges, and moves quickly into the third turn.
- She takes the low line, putting the apex of the turn below the gate. The top three finishers took this line, as well as the majority of racers, judging from the the ruts left behind.
- She moves into the rough snow section with strong pressure on her left, outside ski.
- Through this rough section, her skis barely bounce. They bend from the center and carve through the rough snow towards the next gate.
- She makes slight adjustments with her ankles and hips to absorb the bumps. It looks like she is guarding the left knee and bracing against it, rather than flexing and extending it to absorb the rough snow surface.
- Her left ski is bent and loaded as she moves into the slight compression immediately before the 4th gate. Her left leg remains relatively straight and she launches out of the compression.
- As her skis leave the snow, the tips are pointed up and toward the outside of the course. Her head and shoulders are directed down the fall line and she is starting to adjust her body position in the air to face down the fall line.
- Her right hand hits the gate, which twists her upper body away from the fall line, past the tips of her skis, toward the surface of the snow behind her.
- Her right hand is also pulled backwards and her hips and midsection move back over the heel piece of her bindings.
- The tips of her skis follow her body and end up perpendicular with the fall line.
- Her body lands at an acute angle to the ground. A cloud of snow, shoulder roll, tangle of legs and skis follow.
- She breaks her leg. Ouch!
- When she hit her hand against the gate, it twisted her body away from the fall line. She did not have time to adjust before she crashed. This is the primary reason she crashed. If she hadn't hit her hand and gotten twisted around, she probably would have made adjustments mid-air that would have enabled her to land the jump.
However, - Bracing against the left leg (rather than absorbing the rough terrain by flexing and extending it) meant she did not absorb the compression or jump, and provided the kinetic energy that launches her into the air.
- She entered the jump at the fourth gate in a disadvantageous position, with her skis tipped up and away from the fall line.
- The lack of flexion in her left knee as she hit the compression and the jump put her in this position.