Lindsey Vonn has told The Associated Press she is "not in a position emotionally" to decide whether she will return to competitive ski racing, three months after a Cortina training crash on February 8 that came close to costing her left leg.
In an interview published on May 2, the 41-year-old American — who only returned from a near six-year retirement to race the 2024-25 World Cup season — explained that she is parking the decision rather than rushing it.
"I just don't want to jump to any conclusions or even speculate on what I might do," Vonn said. "I may retire. I may never race again and that would be completely fine, but I'm not in a position emotionally to make that decision at this point."
The injury sustained at the Milan Cortina Olympics is among the most serious of her career: a complex left tibia fracture that doctors initially feared might require amputation. Vonn has now had eight surgeries since the crash, with one more scheduled.
"Regardless, nothing would really happen until '27-28 because I still have one more surgery left to take out the metal and to replace my ACL," she said. "Once I get my ACL fixed, then that's another six months, so I have at least I would say a year and a half ahead of me before I could really be back to 100%."
Vonn skied the entire 2024-25 World Cup season and the Olympic downhill at Cortina on a torn ACL — she had been managing the knee injury for months — before the crash compounded the problem on the same Italian mountains where she would have been one of the favourites.
She told the AP she does not regret the choice that put her on the start line at all.
"Downhill skiing is one of the most dangerous sports in the world, and that's a risk that I've always taken happily, and this is the result, and I don't regret it," Vonn said. "I don't want a do-over."
Vonn also addressed the family pressure that has greeted her recovery, noting that one well-meaning relative had pushed her to step away from the sport entirely. The reaction was characteristic.
"He means the best," Vonn said. "He forgot the cardinal rule with me is that if you don't want me to do something, you shouldn't tell me I can't. Tell me I can't and I'll prove you wrong."
It is the same instinct that brought her back from a 2024 unretirement at age 40, drove her to 84 World Cup wins across 414 starts, and pushed her into Olympic team selection at Cortina against medical caution. The difference now is the timing: with the next World Cup season starting in October, any racing comeback would be aimed at 2027-28, when Vonn will be 43.
For now, the message is simply that the door is not closed.