Atrás
Vonn will begin another “six to nine months” of recovery and physical therapy after her surgery
Lindsey Vonn is back on the surgical table for the ninth time this year.
The decorated Olympian, 42, is undergoing surgery on Monday, Nov. 9 to repair the damage to her left leg suffered before and during her crash at the 2026 Milan Winter Olympics back in February.
Vonn first hurt her leg when she “completely” ruptured her ACL during a World Cup race a week prior to the start of the Games. She decided to compete in the Olympics regardless, and crashed during her downhill event on Feb. 8 after snagging her ski pole on a course flag. Vonn was immediately airlifted to a hospital in Treviso, Italy, where she underwent four surgeries to stabilize her leg, and was able to fly back to the U.S. for the remainder of her operations.
While Vonn has been able to work out, attend award shows and go on European vacations the past few months, it was all part of the healing process ahead of what she is “praying” will be her final surgery.
“This day has been looming on my calendar for a while now… and the time has finally come,” she captioned a video on Instagram, which she explained was scheduled to go up while she’s in surgery. “I’ve been nervous and anxious about it…but at the same time excited to hopefully put this behind me.”
Vonn said her surgeon will be removing the “plates and screws” that went into her leg to fix the complex tibia fracture she suffered in the crash, and then finally replacing the ACL she tore a week before the Olympics.
“[We’re] just basically removing all the hardware so we can put in a new ACL, because I don’t have an ACL still. Cause of all the plates, we just couldn’t put it in,” she explained in her video. “So I’ve been waiting all of these nine months so my bone could heal and we could fix the ACL, and my bones healed, which is great news. But obviously now that means another six to nine months [of recovery] like a normal ACL [surgery]. But obviously, when you take out all the screws, that leaves holes in your bone as well, so those have to heal. But fingers crossed.”
The PEOPLE stories you love, with first access and special features reserved for subscribers.
Vonn added in the caption of her post that she’ll keep her fans updated after the surgery, because it may not be as straightforward as they hope.
“There are still things that could change in surgery, so we will have to wait and see how it goes, but I will keep you posted on my progress when I am out of surgery and recovering,” she said.
The five-time Olympian thanked her followers “for all of the support over these last 9 months,” and the comments filled up with well-wishes, including a “❤️🩹” from her boyfriend, Matthieu Bailet.
Vonn told PEOPLE a week before her surgery that she’s “looking forward to moving past this” operation, and reflected on making her runway debut in Paris this past September.
“It’s ironic because at the L’Oreal Paris show, I finally felt confident enough to show my scars fully, and now I’m going to open them all back up. Back to square one, but it’s okay. It happens. It’s life. We’ll move forward.”