'I Dared To Dream': Lindsey Vonn Sends Heartfelt Message To Fans Following Crash

Just one day after her horrific crash in the women’s downhill event at the Winter Olympics, Team USA alpine skier Lindsey Vonn on Monday declared that she had “no regrets.”

“I hope if you take away anything from my journey it’s that you all have the courage to dare greatly. Life is too short not to take chances on yourself. Because the only failure in life is not trying,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “I believe in you, just as you believed in me. ❤️LV.”

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Vonn attached a photo of the frightening moment when her arm got hooked inside a gate, sending her tumbling into the snow on Sunday. She was then strapped to a stretcher and airlifted via helicopter to a nearby hospital.

Vonn, who was already battling through a severe left knee injury she sustained just before the start of the competition, wrote that her Olympic dream didn’t finish the way she intended.

“I dared to dream and had worked so hard to achieve it,” wrote the 41-year-old, who returned to competitive skiing in 2024 following a years-long retirement due to other injuries. “Because in Downhill ski racing the difference between a strategic line and a catastrophic injury can be as small as 5 inches.”

Vonn explained that her ruptured ACL and her history of injuries had nothing to do with the crash. However, it left her with a fracture in her left leg that will require multiple surgeries.

Vonn emphasized that simply standing in the starting gate and having a go at gold “was a victory in and of itself.” 

“And similar to ski racing, we take risks in life. We dream. We love. We jump. And sometimes we fall,” she said. “Sometimes our hearts are broken. Sometimes we don’t achieve the dreams we know we could have. But that is the also the beauty of life; we can try. I tried. I dreamt. I jumped.”