Feb 10, 2026
3 min read
Lindsey Vonn knows the Olympic downhill better than anyone, so how did the 41-year-old American lose control just 12.5 seconds into her run...
Lindsey Vonn knows the course of the Olympics better than anyone.
She has won a record 12 World Cup races at the Olympia delle Tofane circuit – split equally across six downhills and six super-Gs – and has a total of 20 podiums there, dating back to her first podium on the entire circuit in 2004.
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So how did the 41-year-old American lose control just 12.5 seconds into his race and crash spectacularly at the Milan Cortina Winter Games on Sunday?
Here's what happened and why:
An important part of advance
The highlight of the downhill route is the Tofana schuss, a narrow path between two dolomite rock walls where skiers reach speeds of up to 130 kilometers per hour.
But the real key to the Tofane Olympia course is on the slope, where there is a major right turn.Vonn collapsed there.
“It's an incredible contrast,” said Kristian Ghedina, a Cortina native and former racing driver who grew up in the village below the finish line.“Then your speed is determined for the rest of the route and if you don’t choose the right route it makes a big difference because you’re going uphill.”
It flew in the air and crashed against the door
Vaughn battled the overturned bank and rose slightly as a bump burst through the air, causing him to enter the fourth gate on the right hand side.
Then the real disaster began to unfold.
Vonn tried to turn and regain her balance in mid-air, but her skis were perpendicular to the fall line and she landed awkwardly, causing a brutal fall. She fell, was launched into the air again, landed on her neck, slid down a short distance, and came to rest in the middle of the field, away from the safety net, but clearly in serious trouble.
Hours later, Won underwent surgery for a broken left leg and is in stable condition.
"After that it's very flat, so the goal is to get as close to that gate as possible and she actually hit the turn, but she was too close to it, so she hooked," Norwegian skier Kajsa Wickhoff said of the lies."But that's how it is at the Olympics, you really want to be at the limit and she was a little bit over the limit."
Although there are still problems in those segments, this year the final shot is "more than a boat", Lie noted, which is why Vonn is immediately on the air.
"I watched the video, and probably like everyone else, I saw that she went over that panel, which was a high double, and obviously it hit her in the air, and then there was a very significant fall," USA skiing coach Paul Krysofich told The Associated Press.
FIS president Johan Eliasch said the accident was rare, but dangerous.
“It's also important for people to understand that the accident he was involved in yesterday was incredibly unfortunate.It was one of 1,000," Elias said."He got too close to the gate, got stuck in the air on the gate and started spinning. Nobody can recover from that unless you do a 360. ... That's part of skiing. It's a dangerous sport."
Organizers defend the preparation of the course in the section where Van crashed
Women's race director Peter Gerdol said the stretch where Vonn lost control was "no different than other years".
"This is the fall of Cortina, and this year we are talking about the Olympics," he told the AP.
Has there been an emphasis on controlling the size of that tumor?
"Nothing serious," Gedol said. "Because actually today all the athletes came through easily. Lindsay made a mistake and this happened. It could have happened in any part of the field. It happened there, but it could have happened in another part."
The obligatory airbag inflated under Von's racing suit
When he stopped, Vonn's skis were looking in all directions, still holding on to the ropes.He then moved his left arm to his body and lay there alone and motionless until help arrived some time later.He waited a few minutes before being taken away by plane.
A mandatory safety airbag under her racing suit was inflated during the accident, supplier Dainese confirmed to the AP.The airbag, which was triggered by a complex algorithm when the racer lost control, could have softened her landing.
The air bag was clearly deployed, as Vaughn's chest heaved as he lay on the ice.
Marco Pastore, in charge of Dennis Safety Systems, said the airbags deflated after about 20 seconds, so it may have happened while Vonn was lying in the snow after the crash. Ultimately, Dennis will try to recover the "black box" sensor that could reveal data from the fall.
“He was wearing it when they took him from the helicopter,” Mbusa said."That's why we don't have the data yet."
