Lindsey Vonn: US skater has ‘no remorse’ after suffering broken leg in crash at Winter Olympics

US skater Lindsey Vonn said she has “no regrets” after an accident in the women’s downhill skiing competition at the Winter Olympics resulted in a “complex leg fracture” that will require multiple surgeries.

The 41-year-old’s arm got stuck in a gate just 13 seconds into her Sunday run at the Olimpia delle Toffani in Cortina, throwing her off balance.

She was treated on the slope for a long period before being airlifted off the piste to Ca’ Funicello Hospital in Treviso, where she underwent surgery on a broken left leg.

The 2010 Olympic downhill champion was already racing due to torn ligaments in her left knee but was determined to compete in her fifth and final Games.

“Yesterday my Olympic dream did not end the way I dreamed it would,” she said in an Instagram post on Monday.

“It wasn’t the end of a story book or a fairy tale, it was just life. I dared to dream and worked hard to achieve it.

“Although yesterday did not end the way I had hoped, and despite the intense physical pain it caused, I have no regrets.

“Standing in the starting gate yesterday was an amazing feeling that I will never forget. Knowing that I stood there with a chance to win was a victory in itself.”

Vonn crashed in Switzerland in the last race before the Olympics nine days before competing in the downhill event in Italy.

She confirmed in a press conference on Wednesday that she had torn her anterior cruciate ligament, but expressed her determination to compete.

The two-time world champion says the torn ACL and her previous injuries, including a partial right knee replacement, “had nothing to do with my crash at all.”

Vonn’s decision to race led to widespread praise for her bravery but also criticism about the dangers and potential risk of permanent damage.

“It has always been and always will be an incredibly dangerous sport,” she said. “Like ski racing, we take risks in life.”

“We dream. We love. We jump. And sometimes we fall. Sometimes our hearts break. Sometimes we don’t achieve the dreams we know we can achieve. But that’s also the beauty of life; we can try.”

“I hope anything you take away from my journey is that you all have the courage to dare big. Life is too short to risk yourself. Because the only failure in life is not trying.

“I tried. I dreamed. I jumped.”