Lindsey Vonn Hits Major Milestone In Injury Recovery

Months after a dramatic and serious fall in the Olympic downhill, Lindsey Vonn is back in the gym and said on social media that she can now “actually” work out.

The ski racer shared videos of her doing a series of workouts, including pull-ups and unassisted Bulgarian split squats. While Vonn’s already been working out, previous videos and posts often showed a wheelchair or crutches.

“The face I make when I can actually workout in the gym!” she wrote. “Makes me so happy and excited I can’t even put it into words!”

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Two winters ago, Vonn returned to skiing for the first time since she retired in 2019, taking advantage of a newly reconstructed knee. The bid came with plenty of doubters, but she performed admirably, finishing out her first season back with a second-place finish.

Then, Vonn kicked into another gear, landing on the podium in almost all of her races ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics. An ACL tear just before the Games started called her ability to race into question, but Vonn still went for it.

Only seconds into her Olympic downhill run, though, Vonn clipped a gate, spun out of control, and crashed hard (she’s said the torn ACL didn’t play a role in the fall). She suffered a complex tibia fracture, requiring numerous surgeries. 

Vonn also said that the crash caused compartment syndrome in her left leg, which, barring intervention from her surgeon Dr. Tom Hackett, could have ended with an amputation.

In the months afterward, she shared updates, both from the gym and her life outside of being an athlete. She gingerly rode an exercise bike. She took her dog for a spin on a scooter. She attended the Met Gala, standing for photos without crutches. She gave a commencement speech for students at USC Annenberg.

As Vonn bounced back, questions swirled: was a comeback after the comeback in the future? After all, her latest return to racing, even if it ended in a crash, showed that she has a knack for doing the improbable. 

But Vonn doesn’t seem to have an answer to those questions yet, at least publicly, even as she makes more progress in the gym.

“I just don’t want to jump to any conclusions or even speculate on what I might do,” Vonn told the Associated Press in April. “I may retire. I may never race again, and that would be completely fine, but I’m not in a position emotionally to make that decision at this point.”

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