Olympic legend Lindsey Vonn was spotted being pushed through Los Angeles International Airport in a wheelchair over the weekend, a sobering reminder of just how far the ski champion has to go in her recovery.
The 41-year-old American icon was wheeled through the terminal by airport staff nearly three months after a horrifying crash 13 seconds into her women’s downhill run at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics on February 8.
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The crash left Vonn with complex fractures in her left tibia and fibula and a broken right ankle. She nearly lost her leg.
Doctors raced to prevent amputation after Vonn developed compartment syndrome following her first surgery, a dangerous condition where rising internal pressure from bleeding threatened the limb entirely. She ultimately underwent five surgeries, spending nearly a month between hospitals in Italy and the United States before finally returning home to Utah on March 1.
She recently gave an interview with People.
“I’d say in the last month, it’s definitely gotten better, but of course there were really low moments,” Vonn said. “I hate being dependent on people, and was pretty much 100 [percent] dependent for everything. It was quite a challenge, just being in the hospital alone for two and a half weeks. Being completely immobile for that extended time period was so rough.”
“There were a million things that were being said online, that people were so convinced that they knew even though they don’t really have a concept of ski racing, and what it physically takes,” Vonn said.
She had already shown flashes of her legendary grit. A month after the crash, she posted a video to Instagram of herself working out in the gym.
“Definitely some hard times but still thankful… still working hard,” she wrote. “The only goal is to get healthy. One day at a time.”
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Now on crutches for the first time since the crash, Vonn said she had hit “some nice milestones” and was “getting closer to being back to the real world and getting my life back.”
She’s not ruling out a return to the slopes either.
“Whether it’s on the race course or not, I’ll definitely be going back to it,” she said.