What changed
Lindsey Vonn has undergone her ninth operation after crashing in the Olympic downhill at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Surgeons removed hardware from eight earlier procedures to repair her ACL. Vonn said her bones had healed, but the ACL recovery could take another six to nine months.
Why it matters
This is not a routine final chapter to an injury. It is another major checkpoint in a comeback already shaped by repeated operations, serious leg injuries and a partial right knee replacement before her return to racing in 2024.
Vonn ruptured knee ligaments nine days before the downhill, then struck a gate just 13 seconds into her run. The new operation shows how much repair remains even after the bones heal: the knee itself now sets the timetable.
At 42, Vonn has already won the 2010 Olympic downhill and 84 World Cup races. Whether she races again is unknown. For now, the clearest measure of progress is much less glamorous: healing, rehabilitation and whether the repaired ACL can withstand what comes next.
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