Lindsey Vonn isn’t letting being laid up after her tragic crash at the 2026 Winter Olympics dampen her spirits. In fact, the athlete shared a heartwarming video proving she’s making the best of her recovery journey.
On Monday, February 16, Vonn, 41, shared an Instagram video that her sister, Karin Kildow, put together featuring a compilation of her having fun with nurses, doctors, friends and family while in the hospital. The video includes lots of laughs, Vonn getting her hair done, eating hospital food and undergoing physical therapy.
“Thankful for friends, family, my team and all the medical staff that are getting me back to myself,” she captioned the video. “I’m slowly coming back to life, back to basics and the simple things in life that mean the most. Smile. Laugh. Love.”
She concluded by revealing the video “instantly made me cry and made my heart full” when her sister showed it to her.
Vonn will likely be stuck in the hospital longer after suffering a complex tibia fracture while competing in the women’s downhill run in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, on February 8. Since then, she’s undergone multiple surgeries for the injury to ensure she’s able to make a full recovery.
In a previous update on her social media, where she’s been very active since the crash, Vonn explained that she’ll require more surgeries once she’s back home in the United States. She also shed some light on the specifics of what happened on her run — noting she was “simply 5 inches too tight on my line when my right arm hooked inside of the gate, twisting me” — but admitted she has "no regrets."
“Standing in the starting gate yesterday was an incredible feeling that I will never forget,” Vonn wrote. “Knowing I stood there having a chance to win was a victory in and of itself.”