Senior officials at the Winter Olympics have defended Lindsey Vonn’s decision to compete in Sunday’s downhill just nine days after rupturing her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) – with the skiing great’s horror crash described as “a one in 1000” accident.
Vonn has undergone surgery on a leg fracture after being airlifted from the slopes and is in a “stable” condition, US officials confirmed. The 41-year-old suffered the painful fall in Cortina, ensuring no comeback from a brutal left knee injury just days out from the Games at Milano-Cortina, with her father coming out and saying that he hopes it acts as “the end of her career”.
The former gold medal winner announced her intention to compete at the Games despite retiring in 2019. Nine days before the Olympics began, Vonn ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in a race at Crans-Montana which cast doubt over whether she should compete.
Vonn’s decision to race, and whether she should have been allowed to do so, has since been the subject of some debate. “This decision was really hers and her team’s to take,” the International Olympic Committee’s sports director Pierre Ducrey said. “She made the decision and unfortunately it led to the injury.”
Follow all the latest updates from Milano-Cortina 2026 in our live blog below:
Ukrainian skeleton star wears helmet displaying athletes killed in Ukraine-Russia war at Winter Olympics
Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych trained wearing a helmet brandished with images of compatriots killed during the war in his homeland, delivering on a promise to use the Winter Olympics to keep attention on the conflict.
Visible on the helmet are teenage weightlifter Alina Perehudova, boxer Pavlo Ischenko, ice hockey player Oleksiy Loginov, actor and athlete Ivan Kononenko, diving athlete and coach Mykyta Kozubenko, shooter Oleksiy Habarov and dancer Daria Kurdel.
“Some of them were my friends,” Heraskevych, who is his country’s flag bearer, told Reuters of the portraits after his training session at the Cortina sliding centre.
“It’s still being processed,” he said.
Bruce Mouat and Jennifer Dodds fall short in bid to guarantee Team GB’s first medal
Few sports put you through the wringer quite like curling and, after this semi-final defeat, it will take some time for Bruce Mouat and Jen Dodds to straighten out.
The Scottish pair won eight of nine in the round robin, secured the top seed for the semi-finals and were favourites for the gold medal.
But the velvety touch that carried them this far deserted them at the worst possible moment and they collapsed to a 9–3 defeat to Sweden. Sport, eh.
Bronze is still on the table for Mouat and Dodds but, after such a shock to the system, they face a tall task to prevent a repeat of the last Olympics, when they lost both of their knockout matches and finished fourth.
Vonn moved to intensive care ‘for privacy’
US skier Lindsey Vonn was moved to intensive care “for privacy reasons” rather than medical necessity, according to the Daily Mail.
The report says that Vonn, 41, “is in intensive care” following her incident on Sunday, “although it is understood that she was transferred there for the sake of extra privacy, rather than any greater medical necessity”.
Vonn reportedly underwent two surgeries on a leg fracture in a hospital in Treviso, though her team have not provided any further updates on her condition.
Mia Brookes ‘in a good headspace’ to come again for slopestyle
“It was insane. Obviously I’m bummed I couldn’t land that last trick,” Brookes told BBC Sport.
“I had too much spin on it, which I didn’t think I would. Maybe I should have done an 1800 instead!”
“I’m hyped for it, everything good can come from it. I’m in a good headspace and ready to to do slopestyle.”
Mia Brookes misses out on big air glory – but she will be back for medals
Mia Brookes went down fighting as she narrowly missed out on Great Britain’s first medal of the Milan and Cortina Winter Olympics in the women’s snowboard Big Air at Livigno Snow Park.
Starting her last of three runs in third place, Brookes went for broke and came agonisingly close to becoming the first female athlete to land a backside 1620 in competition.
But Brookes slightly over-rotated and was penalised for her landing, meaning she slipped a position behind winner Kokomo Murase of Japan, New Zealander Zio Sadowski Synnott and Seungeun Yu of South Korea.
It marked another near-miss on a day that had promised so much for Team GB, with Kirsty Muir earlier also taking fourth place in the women’s ski slopestyle final.
With the cumulative score of the two best of three runs counting, Brookes had gone into her final attempt in third place behind Yu of South Korea and Japan’s Murase.
Her brave attempt might well have been enough to lift her onto the top of the podium, but instead she is left to refocus on her favourite event, the snowboard slopestyle, later next week.
Lindsey Vonn’s father says Olympics crash is ‘the end of her career’
“She’s 41 years old and this is the end of her career,” Alan Kildow told The Associated Press. “There will be no more ski races for Lindsey Vonn, as long as I have anything to say about it.”
Kildow and the rest of Vonn’s family – including her brother and two sisters – have been with Vonn while she is being treated at a hospital in Treviso following her fall and helicopter evacuation from the course in Cortina Sunday.
Final big air podium
1. Kokomo Murase – 179.00
2. Zoi Sadowski Synnott – 172.25
3. Yu Seungeun – 171.00
Team GB’s Mia Brookes, with a score of 159.50, has to settle for fourth.
Big air final: Kokomo Murase claims big air gold!
Yu Seungeun needs something massive here… and she can’t get it done! It’s the dreaded DNI, meaning gold for Japan’s Kokomo Murase!
She’s embraced by her competitors after what has been a phenomenal final. Not to be for Mia Brookes, but she’ll be back.
