Lindsey Vonn shared a health update with the world on Wednesday, just days after a heart-stopping crash ended her 2026 Olympic comeback, and with it came a startling photo of her leg following numerous surgeries. “I had my 3rd surgery today and it was successful. Success today has a completely different meaning than it did a few days ago,” she began her message. Vonn had earlier revealed that recovery from a “complex tibia fracture” would require “multiple surgeries,” but did not say how soon she would undergo them, let alone that she would have had three in such a short span. “I’m making progress and while it is slow, I know I’ll be ok,” she wrote on Wednesday. “Thankful for all of the incredible medical staff, friends, family, who have been by my side and the beautiful outpouring of love and support from people around the world.” While the crash ended Vonn’s Olympic journey these Games, it didn’t end her support for her teammates. “Also, huge congrats to my teammates and all of the Team USA athletes who are out there inspiring me and giving me something to cheer for,” Vonn wrote. It marks the second update Vonn has given since the devastating crash that saw her helicoptered off a mountain in the women’s downhill event. In her first message post-crash, Vonn revealed details on her left leg injuries and gave an update on how she was feeling. “While yesterday did not end the way I had hoped, and despite the intense physical pain it caused, I have no regrets,” Vonn said. Since her announcement, experts have said the recovery process will be intensive. “The most likely scenario would be an external fixator where we put, essentially, an erector set around the knee to stabilize a broken joint,” said Dr. Mark Schultzel, an orthopedic surgeon at Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego and a member of the U.S. Olympic team medical staff. Because Vonn said she’s going to need multiple procedures, it most likely means she’s going to be off her feet for a while. “In terms of the recovery, an external fixator is really meant to temporize things until she can a definitive surgical fixation later on in time to allow her soft tissue to recover and her swelling to resolve to put things like plates on the inside of the bone,” Schultzel said. “That would leave her off of her leg for six to eight weeks, minimum.” Nine days before Sunday’s crash, the 41-year-old Vonn ruptured the ACL in her left knee. It is an injury that sidelines pro athletes for months, but ski racers have on occasion competed that way. She appeared stable in two downhill training runs at the Milan Cortina Games. Onlookers on social media wondered if Vonn’s ruptured ACL could have played a factor in her crash near the top of the Olympia delle Tofana course, where she has a World Cup record 12 wins. That maybe, on a healthy left knee, she would not have clipped a gate and been able to stave off a crash. Vonn said that was not the case. “I was simply 5 inches too tight on my line when my right arm hooked inside of the gate, twisting me and resulted in my crash. My ACL and past injuries had nothing to do with my crash whatsoever,” she wrote. This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser. ...read more read less