A long road to recovery lies in wait for Lindsey Vonn.
But as the American skier explained in an Instagram post on Monday, the implications of her Olympic downhill crash could have been much worse.
“Dr. Tom Hackett saved my leg, he saved my leg from being amputated,” Vonn said, referring to an orthopedic surgeon who works for Team USA.
Vonn noted that Hackett wouldn’t have been in Italy at all had it not been for the torn left ACL she suffered in the weeks leading up to the Olympics — and that had he not been there, the result could have been different.
The 41-year-old also ran down the list of injuries she sustained in the crash on the Cortina downhill, including a complex tibia fracture, fractured fibular head, fractured tibular plateau and broken right ankle.
“Everything was in pieces,” Vonn said.
“It has been quite the journey and by far the most extreme and painful and challenging injury I’ve ever faced in my life.”
Vonn added that she is likely to be in a wheelchair for a “while” before moving to crutches for a few months.
In Cortina, she crashed 13 seconds into her run and was airlifted off the course by helicopter. She announced afterward that she had suffered a “complex tibia fracture that is currently stable but will require multiple surgeries to fix properly.”
She then underwent at least five surgeries before returning home.
Still, Vonn said she was happy she made her comeback attempt after six years of retirement.
“I wish it had ended differently, but I’d rather go down swinging than not try at all,” she said. “I think what I was able to achieve was more than anyone expected to begin with.”
