Winter Olympics 2026: Lindsey Vonn completes successful training run on torn ACL

Despite more than an hour delay for fog, Lindsey Vonn cleared a major hurdle before Sunday’s Olympic women’s downhill with a successful training run in Cortina on Friday, exactly one week after she tore the ACL in her left knee and was airlifted off a mountain in Switzerland. 

Completing the training run was not only considered a key test of the knee, it was a requirement if the 41-year old Vonn was going to compete for a fourth Olympic medal 16 years after winning gold in Vancouver. One of Vonn’s three opportunities to complete a training run was eliminated Thursday when officials cancelled it due to heavy snow and dangerous conditions. 

Vonn only needed one, navigating the Olympia delle Tofane slope relatively cleanly in 1:40.33. It’s unclear whether Vonn intends to participate in Saturday’s training. 

While somewhat unprecedented for an athlete to even attempt competing at an Olympic level with an injury that typically requires reconstructive surgery and a minimum nine-month rehabilitation period, Vonn said in a press conference earlier this week that she had minimal pain and swelling in the knee and that it felt stable. Those assertions were backed up by a training video she posted to Instagram on Thursday showing Vonn progressing through a high-intensity workout that included weighted squats and box jumps. 

She posted another social media message before Friday’s run with a smiling selfie and mountains in the background with a caption:  “Nothing makes me happier!” 

The successful training run should allay some fears that Vonn was too ambitious in trying to compete at these Winter Games. Though orthopedic experts interviewed by Yahoo Sports stressed that a normal person could not and should not attempt to do what Vonn is doing, Dr. Yair David Kissin of the Hackensack University Medical Center said it was a “great example that every case needs to be individualized.”

He added: “It brings tears to my eyes as a sports medicine ACL doctor, a knee doctor, that she can attain that level of athleticism, of performance, after going through what she’s gone through. Nobody sees the work she put in. You have to respect and appreciate that.” 

The fog rolled in roughly midway through the course after just five competitors and only a few minutes before Vonn’s scheduled run, almost eliminating visibility during a key section of the course. Vonn seemed to remain in good spirits through the delay, at one point practicing dances with her American teammates.