We need to talk about Lindsey Vonn
What happened in this Olympics was wildly irresponsible by her medical team.
I have to admit,
When I’d heard Lindsey Vonn tore her ACL on January 30th and saw videos of her strength training like nothing had happened, I felt polarized.
Maybe at first, the athlete and we felt some level of hope that injury specialists had finally turned the corner on ACL science.
Videos of NBA players returning to some levels of activity last fall after rupturing their achilles’ started to make me think that physiotherapy was making strides in injury recovery.
Then, I started to get a bit cynical. My history of working with post-op ACL clients told me a few things were pretty off-the-table for exercise during recovery.
Impact.
Lateral knee movement.
Anything high-torque like twisting and explosive movements.
All of which her physio team had her performing in some viral videos in the lead up to the 2026 Winter Olympics.
I figured, with some hesitancy, “could this not be an ACL tear? Is this just for clicks?”
I try never to think that way, but in today’s day and age of the internet, it’s hard not to.
Performative posting on social media is not limited to any one group, and Olympian or not, this felt a bit forced.
So, this begs the next question we need to be asking after this morning…
Was it responsible for Lindsey Vonn and her medical team to run her in this year’s Olympics?
After her crash during her run this morning, we have to ask this question.
But first, let me be equitable about the situation from what I would expect Olympians to think.
It’s the Olympics.
The highest, most grand stage of sport. The level of competition less than 1% of humans throughout all of history will have a chance to compete in.
I can understand why an athlete who has trained their entire life would not want to back down from competing, injury or not.
Part of me finds it admirable to try and push through such a potentially crippling injury to compete for a coveted medal.
It’s especially excruciating that the injury happened just a week before competition took place. Vonn is a decorated athlete — a 4-time Olympian with 3 medals and countless World Cup wins and podiums in alpine/downhill skiing.
At 41, she knows her body well enough to assume whatever risks come with competing below the 100%-ready threshold.
With all that being said…
I don’t agree with the sensationalizing of her injury and week-long recovery in the lead up to the run this morning/today.
Broadcasting this as “watch how this seemingly impossible injury sets this athlete up for an improbable victory” was not the route Vonn’s team should’ve taken.
Competing in the Olympics comes with enough pressure as it is.
I would think more sensible heads would’ve prevailed in a situation where an injury we’ve known to be potentially life altering — often leading to second and third surgeries later in life — should’ve kept Vonn out of competition.
But how can they know that?
Even if the injury wasn’t affecting her run physically, how can they demonstrably prove Vonn’s psychology wasn’t affected by it?
I think Steve Magness could probably write a more eloquent piece than myself on how an injury like that could affect the mind of an athlete of her caliber.
Can miracles happen? Could Vonn have aced her first Olympic run and could I have eaten my words in spite of all of this?
Maybe. Her practice runs went well enough.
But we need to be having a conversation now about whether or not it’s responsible to let athletes decide on competitive opportunities like this when their livelihood is at stake.
Incredible of an athlete as Vonn is — and I still don’t know how (and might as well commend her for) she was able to perform those viral exercises and move like that post-ACL — even the greatest of athletes have held back when conditions weren’t ideal.
You could say it’s convenient for me to say this after her crash in this morning’s run.
But I’d bet hundreds that I’m giving Vonn a more charitable view of this approach than many online trolls will post-assessment of the crash.
I think it’s a game of numbers.
Anyone who reads this newsletter all the way through knows I’m very meticulous about them.
The Lebron James’ and Tom Brady’s of the world really only come around once a century.
I think their longevity and hunger for sport is contagious among their fellow elite athletes. Everyone is looking for a way to extend their life in sport similar to how us average folk are looking for longevity hacks in life.
I’m also aware that situations like Alex Honnold’s — the free-soloist who recently summoned Taipei 101 — provide similar arguments against mine in favor for Vonn.
“If Honnold was literally willing to DIE, why can’t Vonn choose to possibly explode her kneecap?”
But even Alex Honnold knows that there are limitations to performance. I don’t think it’s any mystery that we haven’t seen him much since Free Solo.
I see this as more of a failure of Vonn’s medical/PR team than Vonn herself. I can’t fault her as much, being an elite competitive athlete.
But the medical team letting her compete and broadcasting her rehab like some sort of 30-for-30 in the making years from now felt unnecessarily contrived, and unfortunately history may frown on them, pending any serious updates from the Olympic medical team.
I truly hope Lindsey makes it out of this morning’s crash relatively unscathed.
I know a lot of writers covering current events get scrutinized as negative nancy’s.
I don’t want to be that guy, but in a world where everything is broadcast to everyone 24/7, I think I might’ve found Vonn’s 2026 Olympic pursuit more noble if I learned of her injuries after the fact.
Not everything needs to be posted to social media.
Not everything needs “buzz” or “hype” around it. It’s okay to move in silence and take your flowers in silence.
Whether or not it was her choice to post all this for the world to see, I think there are many things to be studied from this instance.
I wish we could’ve emerged from this with a story about the fallacy of human limits, but right now there are more questions than answers about Vonn’s approach.