Skiing icon Lindsey Vonn has defended her decision to compete in the Olympics despite undergoing surgery for a broken left leg.

U.S. skier Lindsey Vonn said on Monday she suffered a “complicated tibia fracture” in a fall during a downhill race at the Winter Olympics that will require “multiple surgeries.”

“While yesterday didn’t end the way I wanted it to, and despite the severe physical pain it caused, I have no regrets,” Vonn said on social media from where he was being treated in an Italian hospital.

Vonn, 41, insisted her ruptured anterior cruciate ligament in a crash during a World Cup race ahead of the Milan-Cortina Games had “nothing to do with my crash”.

“When my right arm got hooked inside the door, my rope was 5 inches too tight, twisting me and causing my collapse,” she added.

“I suffered a complex tibia fracture which is currently stable but required multiple surgeries to repair properly.”

Vonn said in his first statement after the accident: “My Olympic dream didn’t go the way I dreamed it would. It wasn’t a storybook ending or a fairy tale, it was just life. I dared to dream and worked really hard to make it happen.”

“Because in downhill ski racing, the difference between a strategic line and a catastrophic injury can be as little as 5 inches.”

Vaughn suffered a serious fall just 13 seconds into his run. She was hoisted from the ski slopes by a rescue helicopter and is being treated at a hospital in Treviso.

She resumed her career in late 2024 after retiring for nearly six years and was considered a favorite for the downhill event at this Olympics after reaching seven World Cup podiums, including two wins, before falling before the Olympics in Crans-Montana, Switzerland.