Skiing legend Lindsey Vonn screaming in pain and airlifted off mountain after crashing hard in Olympic downhill race
Niamh Shackleton
Featured Image Credit: Daniel Kopatsch/VOIGT/GettyImages
Team USA's Lindsey Vonn has suffered a devastating crash in the Winter Olympics just a week after sustaining a serious knee injury.
Last week, the 41-year-old sports legend announced on Instagram that she'd injured her knee, which was later revealed to be a ruptured ACL along with a bone bruise and meniscal damage.
Online, it was suggested that Vonn's ACL was already injured before last week, which is why she was able to bounce back so impressively ahead of today's race (February 8), but she hit back and insisted that that wasn't the case.
Detailing the extent of her injury, she wrote on social media: "My ACL was fully functioning until last Friday. Just because it seems impossible to you doesn’t mean it’s not possible. And yes, my ACL is 100% ruptured. Not 80% or 50%. It’s 100% gone."
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Despite the serious injury, Vonn proceeded to take part in today's alpine ski event at Milano Cortina 2026.
Just yesterday, Vonn clocked the third-fastest time in the second downhill training session, The Guardian reported — but this all changed this afternoon.
Making her way down the slopes, Vonn clipped one of the flags and came crashing down.
See the harrowing moment she crashed out here:
The live coverage of the devastating scenes saw medics rush to her aid as the American athlete was screaming out in pain.
The crowd, her teammates, and competitors were stunned into silence, and they waited with bated breath to see if Vonn got back up.
Worryingly, she didn't and was airlifted off to hospital.
BBC Sport noted that Vonn was not actually lifted into the helicopter and remained dangling off the aircraft on a rope, something which the news outlet's reporter suggested was a really bad sign, as Vonn might have been too injured to be safely hoisted into the helicopter.
People have since taken to Twitter to share their heartbreak about Vonn's injury and hearing her in pain.
"Sick to my stomach seeing Lindsay screaming in agony," someone said, adding: "This looked so bad."
"Watching Lindsey Vonn fall and hearing her scream in panic is terrible," wrote a second.
Another Olympics viewer said: "You could hear Vonn screaming in pain on the mountain for a while during the delay here. Tough to watch."
The full extent of Vonn's injuries from today are yet to be revealed at the time of writing.