Skier Lindsey Vonn won't back down

0:00Lindsey Vonn:It's Consider This, where every day we go deep on one big news story. Today, the agony of defeat and the long road back. It started early this year. Here's Lindsey Vonn. As the 2026 Winter Olympics approached, there was one athlete everyone was waiting to see, Lindsey Vonn. The skiing star was on the cusp of capping off one of the most remarkable career comebacks ever, after a five-year retirement and a knee replacement. But even before the games began, Von crashed and injured her knee. Where is Von? Where is Von? Oh, Von is in the netting! Oh my goodness, me! Lindsey Von has crashed out! I completely ruptured my ACL.

0:43I know what my chances were before the crash, and I know my chances aren't the same as it stands today, but I know there's still a chance. And as long as there's a chance, I will try.

0:54Lindsey Vonn:And so she did. Millions watched on February 8th as the 41-year-old started her race on the slope at Cortina. Here we go with Lindsey Vaughn and this amazing comeback. In just 13 seconds into her downhill run, everything changed. Oh no! Right at the top of the challenge, Lindsey Vaughn smashes in the opening traverse and the Olympic dream is over. Her arm clipped a gate, set her body flying and tumbling down the hill. She landed hard. Her leg was badly broken. Medical assistance is there for Vaughn. But she's screaming, screaming with pain.

1:36Lindsey Vonn:Consider this. While some might want to lay low after a setback like that, America's most famous downhill skier has never been one to back down.

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2:57Lindsey Vonn:It's Consider This from NPR. For the skiing star Lindsey Vonn, the Olympic downhill race in February was supposed to be the pinnacle of an extraordinary career. Most people wouldn't want to show their face again in public, but not Lindsey Vonn. NPR's Becky Sullivan sat down with her and has the story. I met Lindsey Vonn at a hotel in New York last week. She was fully TV ready, makeup and hair, nice outfit. The gray crutches, though, were hard to miss. I'm not going to be cruising around Central Park anytime soon, but at least I'm kind of in some way out and about. Seeing her now, it's hard to believe that a few months ago she was in arguably the best shape of life.

3:37Lindsey Vonn:Lindsey Vonn now! He's absolutely flying! Vonn was the first American woman to win the Olympic downhill gold, the biggest star in skiing, but she retired in 2019. So to stage a comeback last winter at 41 after a knee replacement, it seemed impossible. Yet here she was. Oldest winner of a World Cup race, Vaughn is there! Unbelievable, incredible! You know, my age didn't mean that I had somehow lost the ability to ski fast, you know, and that was just a really nice feeling. It felt good to be back on top again. She won her first race in December, then another, but her goal was always the Olympics.

4:18The women's events this year were in Cortina Dompezzo, an iconic stop on the World Cup circuit, where Vaughn had won a dozen times in her career. But just over a week before the Olympics, disaster struck. At a race in Switzerland, Vaughn spun out of control off a jump and tore a ligament in her knee. When they told me I tore my ACL, I was shocked, but also, like, I didn't miss a beat. I didn't come all this way to just, you know, stop trying. For those next nine days, she got back to work. Her legs soon felt stable. It felt strong. Meanwhile, the outside world had started to doubt her once again.

4:53This whole Lindsey Vonn situation feels like a publicity stunt.

4:56Lindsey Vonn:The elephant in the room is she's 41. I think this is a monumentally difficult and also dangerous task for her to try to do. And I feel like it was like the biggest question in sports media those nine days was, Like, will she do it? Should she do it? Is it smart? Is it crazy? Is it doable? Is it possible? You know? I'll be above. Cut to Cortina. It was a beautiful sunny day the morning of the Olympic downhill race. I was standing at the finish line. All of us, reporters, athletes, TV announcers, and a grandstand full of fans, held our breath as Vaughn stepped into the start house. Then, 13 seconds into her run, everything went wrong.

5:37Lindsey Vonn:Oh no! Father's gone! She hooked a gate with her right arm, which spun her body around into the air. She hit the snow and tumbled down the slope. When she finally came to a stop, she couldn't move. She was in terrible pain. She acknowledges now that the torn ACL did play a role in what happened. Because of my ACL, I couldn't rely on certain aspects of my skiing that I normally would. And so I was trying to make a calculated plan on where I could make up time. And that second gate or third gate was a place that I knew I could ski better. But missing the mark by a few inches was all it took to end her Olympic dream.

6:16We all watched, stunned, as a helicopter carried her off the mountain.

6:20Lindsey Vonn:We love you, Lindsay. Feel strong. You will be best. Like all ski racers, Lindsay Vaughn is no stranger to injury. But this was the most extreme she's ever faced. She had a complex fracture in her left leg with dangerous complications that could have led to amputation. And she broke her right ankle, too. She needed multiple emergency surgeries in the Italian ICU before she could be flown home to the U.S. The pain was almost unbearable. But I felt like there were mental low points that were much worse. the amount of time in a wheelchair and just being unable to do really anything without someone taking care of me.

7:02I'm a very independent person, and I don't want to burden anybody, and I felt like I was a constant burden. It's normal for anyone, even elite athletes, to go quiet when they experience a severe injury, to recover in private. Lindsay Vaughn, though, has never been normal. Starting that week in the hospital in Italy, she decided to broadcast her ordeal on social media. Hey guys, I just wanted to give you a little update. There were the selfies in her Italian hospital bed, the montage of her medevac flight back to the U.S. of her six-hour surgery in Colorado, the x-rays, the PT, a new motorized scooter.

7:38And in all of it, she wasn't shy about showing her busted leg, sometimes with bandages or a sock hiding the long, healing scars, but not always. Life is life, and we have to take the punches as they come. So I'm going to do the best I can with this one. It really knocked me down. But I'm like Rocky. I'll just keep getting back up. I found it striking how public she's been about it all. She told me she needed it, actually, because she felt so isolated. I thought it was some of, like, the most introspective thought and, like, posting that I've ever done. and I thought it was actually really therapeutic for me because I feel like I had so many emotions that I wanted to tell people, and it was really the only way for me to do that.

8:25Now she's dipping her toe back into the real world. First, a photo shoot for Vanity Fair. I had been in sweatpants with no makeup for so long, and I finally felt like more feminine, and, you know, I'm like, okay, I'm still here. Then came this trip to New York for an educational campaign called Antibodies for Anybody for the pharma company and Vivid. She signed that deal before her crash, but she says she never seriously considered backing out. In fact, Vaughn says she has no regrets at all. My crashes, my obstacles, everything that I face in my life has always made me a better person and led me down a different path that, you know, I wouldn't be where I am right now without it.

9:05Despite everything, I'm still really happy with my life. She does still have a long way to go, about a million more hours of rehab, plus another surgery this fall, then another to finally address that torn ACL. Yet she won't rule out a return to the ski slope one day, if only to get some closure. I never got even a chance to say goodbye to anyone. I saw my teammates in the start and then I was whisked away in a chopper and I never saw anyone again. not even for racing, but just as like a human being to say, you know, this was fun. I love you guys. That might take her a little while. But as she says, she's not one to hide her story.

9:45So she jokes, we'll probably hear about it on Instagram. Becky Sullivan in PR News, New York.

9:52Lindsey Vonn:This episode was produced by Chad Campbell and Karen Zamora. It was edited by Russell Lewis and Courtney Dorning. Our executive producer is Sammy Yenigan. And before we go, a quick thank you to our Consider This Plus listeners who support the show. Your contribution makes it possible for NPR journalists around the world to do their jobs. Supporters also get to hear every episode in even less time and with no sponsor messages. Learn more at plus.npr.org.

10:24Lindsey Vonn:It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Scott Detrow. Support for NPR and the following message come from the Walton Family Foundation, working to create access to opportunity for people and communities by tackling tough social and environmental problems. More information is at waltonfamilyfoundation.org.