Lindsey Vonn Continues to Defy Father Time/Injury at the 2026 Winter Olympics
After rupturing her ACL completely in her last race before the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milan, Lindsey Vonn had her first downhill training session. Impressive is a complete understatement of what happened during that run for the 41-year-old alpine skier.
On one good knee, she was able to complete the first training run of the downhill event on early Friday morning from the top of the mountains at Cortina d’Ampezzo. The NBC broadcast provided a great breakdown analysis of the run, saying that she looked great as she is looking to prepare for the event on Sunday. It will remain to be seen if she and the other skiers like Mikaela Shiffrin, but the spotlight is going to be on Vonn, especially with the story of the injury. Let’s look at the training run for Vonn as a whole.
Vonn’s Training Run Detailed
Friday’s run was delayed by almost an hour due to the low visibility on the mountains, but that didn’t matter once they were able to run down the slopes. Vonn was able to complete the training run in 1.40.33, which is not that bad for a training run, where the purpose was to see how the course is, and a terrible ACL injury just the week before.
Vonn knows the expectations are going to be lowered now because of the injury,y but still believes that she can compete for a medal in this downhill event in Cortina. “I 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,” she said. This run was a huge stepping stone in the process of trying to compete after the injury.
Here is a video of the run in full if you want to look at it yourself…
Vonn’s Coach’s Reaction to the Run
Vonn’s coach, Askel Lund Svindal, had an optimistic reaction when it came to the run that she posted on Friday. “She’s unbelievable,” Svindal said. “So I really think she can do this.” That confidence in her coach speaks loudly, especially as there were a couple of mistakes in the run itself that the team knows can be corrected on Sunday.
As he said, Vonn excelled at turns, calling it her “superpower,” but the mistakes she made were on the last part of the course. “But you know, that stuff we can fix on race day, but if the knee wasn’t working, that we couldn’t fix, so I think we should be very happy,” he said about the mistakes.
Vonn’s Confidence off Past Experience
This won’t be the first race that Vonn has run with an injury on Sunday; she also had a similar situation in 2019 at the World Championships. Here is Vonn’s quote on the connection to that event and how she can use that in Sunday’s competition at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
“I also know what my knee has felt like with previous injuries in the gym, and what it’s felt like during all the physical tests, and I can say that I feel a lot better right now than I have in the past. I feel a lot better right now than I did in 2019 for the last World Championships, and I still got a medal there,” she said.
Those words will definitely resonate with a lot of people in these games, especially if she does achieve the unbelievable and does earn a medal not only with a completely ruptured ACL, but at the age of 41.
What Happens Next
Hopefully, the skiers get another training run before the race on Sunday, but then we will watch on NBC/Peacock to see if Vonn can pull off the miracle in the downhill race on Sunday, on a busy day for American sports at 5:30 AM EST.
