Three-time Olympic medalist Lindsey Vonn ruptured her ACL in a recent World Cup crash but will still try to compete at the Milan Cortina Winter Games, refusing to let this chance "slip through my fingers," she said Tuesday.
Training sessions for the women's downhill are set for Thursday, Friday and Saturday before Sunday's run for gold — and Vonn promised she'll be in the starting gate.
"I know what my chances were before the crash and I know my chances aren’t the same as it stands today," she told reporters.
"But I know there’s still a chance, and as long as there’s a chance, I will try."
Vonn was skiing in the downhill event at the Alpine Ski World Cup in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, on Friday when she lost control coming out of a jump.
She crashed into a safety net and began favoring her left leg. Vonn was eventually airlifted to a hospital for further evaluation.
The Olympic champion said she can't walk away from this chance in what would surely be her last Games.
"I am not letting this slip through my fingers," she said. "I’m not crying. My head is high, I’m standing tall and I’m going to do my best and whatever the result is."
The swelling is down and she's not in any pain, Vonn said.
"I have to take it day by day. My goal is obviously right now the downhill," said Vonn, who did not commit to racing in the super-G which is set for Feb. 12.
"I have to see how it feels. If it’s stable and I feel confident, I’ll continue to race. That is my goal, obviously, but I can’t tell you that answer until I actually ski 80 mph and then I’ll tell you. "
But skiing with an injured knee could lead to further injury, said Dr. John Torres, an NBC News medical contributor.
“From a medical perspective, that’s a very tough uphill battle she’s got in front of her,” Torres said. “That ACL is extremely important to keeping that knee stable, and keeping that knee stable is extremely important to her sport.”
Vonn said she would wear a brace and test her pain tolerance, but that will lead the knee to take on more stress, Torres said. "That’s going to throw off how she takes the curves, how she takes the turns."
If her skiing mechanisms are off, he added, “that can throw her off enough to make her slip, make her slide, make her fall again. That’s the concern.”
Vonn, 41, retired from skiing in February 2019 after a career filled with injuries, but she announced her return to the sport in November 2024.
Vonn last competed in the Winter Games in 2018, when she took home downhill bronze from Pyeongchang. Vonn won downhill gold in 2010 and a super-G bronze that same year in Vancouver.
At the time of her retirement, Vonn was the winningest woman in skiing, with 82 World Cup victories — a record that has since been broken by fellow American Mikaela Shiffrin.
Vonn largely dominated skiing until injuries slowed her down.
She won three straight World Cups from 2008 to 2010 and another in 2012. Since 2013, however, Vonn has torn multiple ligaments in her knee, sustained multiple fractures and, in April 2024, she underwent a knee replacement surgery.
Her comeback had been successful before the crash. Entering the race in Switzerland, Vonn was ranked first in the women’s downhill, leading second-place Emma Aicher by 144 points.
Vonn's longtime coach and mentor Erich Sailer died last year at 99 and she's convinced he'd be OK with her decision to compete.
"He would say, 'It’s only 90 seconds. What’s 90 seconds in a lifetime? It’s nothing, you can do it,'" said Vonn, who won downhill gold in 2010 with a run of 1:44.19.
