US skier Lindsey Vonn faced a possible left leg amputation after a devastating crash in the downhill event at the 2026 Winter Olympics, the decorated star said in a social media video on Monday.
In addition to a broken right ankle and left fibula fracture, Vonn suffered an extremely complex left tibia fracture after clipping a gate mere seconds into her downhill run on February 8th — just days after tearing her left ACL in the leadup to Olympic competition.
In the aftermath of the trauma, the 41-year-old experienced compartment syndrome, a complication in which bleeding or swelling cause significant pressure that, in serious cases, can lead to nerve damage, muscle damage, and even limb loss — necessitating a procedure called a fasciotomy.
Vonn actually credits her torn ACL with saving her leg, as the previous injury was the reason that Team USA orthopedic surgeon Dr. Tom Hackett, who performed the emergency fasciotomy, traveled to Italy with the skier.
"If I hadn't [torn my ACL,] Tom wouldn't have been there. He wouldn't have been able to save my leg," Vonn said. "I feel very lucky and grateful for him."
Following multiple surgeries in both Italy and the US, Vonn is out of the hospital but wheelchair-bound, as the five-time Olympian faces an extended rehabilitation and recovery period that will likely take longer than a year.
"It has been quite the journey and by far the most extreme and painful and challenging injury I've ever faced in my entire life times 100," Vonn explained. "It's going to be a long road."
That said, Vonn has "no regrets" about her fight to return to the Olympic stage.
"I wish it had ended differently, but I'd rather go down swinging than not try at all," she said. "This year was incredible and so worth everything."
Eileen Gu capped her 2026 Olympic run with a bang, as the Chinese freestyle skier won her first gold medal of the Milano-Cortina Games — and the third of her storied career — in the women's halfpipe final on Sunday.
After successfully defending her 2022 halfpipe crown, Gu has now medaled in every Olympic event she's ever attempted, earning three gold and three silver medals at the age of 22.
"The reason I love the records so much is that it's not about man or woman," Gu said. "I'm the most decorated freeskier of all time, male or female."
The San Francisco-born freeski star has become the relatively new Olympic sport's premier global ambassador, entering the 2026 Winter Olympics as its highest-paid athlete while opting to compete for her mother's homeland of China — a choice that ruffled some political feathers.
"Somebody who grew up in the United Sates of America, who benefited from our education system, from the freedoms and liberties that make this country a great place, I would hope they want to compete with the United States of America," Vice President JD Vance told Fox News. "So, I'm going to root for American athletes."
"So many athletes compete for a different country… people only have a problem with me doing it because they kind of lump China into this monolithic entity," Gu said in response. "And also, because I win. Like, if I wasn't doing well, I think that they probably wouldn't care as much, and that's OK for me."
Another winter sports icon is hanging up her skis, as Team USA cross-country star Jessie Diggins competed in her final Olympic race on Sunday, finishing fifth in the inaugural women's 50km mass start classic to round out her decorated career.
"If you had told me even a year ago, I'd be in the fight for a bronze medal in a 50K classic, I would not have believed you," said the four-time Olympic medalist. "I can confidently say I could not possibly have tried harder or gotten more out of my body."
"I got to end [my Olympic career] on a beautiful day and at a venue that I love so much," Diggins added. "I'm just really proud of this last Olympics, really grateful, and really happy. I'm leaving here full of joy."
The 34-year-old revolutionized the sport in the US, joining teammate Kikkan Randall in leading the nation to its first-ever cross-country gold medal when the pair won the team sprint at the 2018 PyeongChang Games.
Diggins then picked up three more medals, earning silver in the 30km freestyle and bronze in the individual sprint at the 2022 Beijing Olympics before taking bronze in last week's 10km interval start freestyle.
Saying that this season would be her last as a professional, Diggins also announced plans to close out her career at the World Cup finals in March.
"I'm just so proud of being gritty and being able to give my best and not just in a bib, off the snow as well, doing what I need to do to be a good human and try to make the world a little bit better," she said.
Ski mountaineering made history on Thursday, as Switzerland's Marianne Fatton won the sport's first-ever Olympic gold after claiming the women's sprint title in Bormio, Italy.
Fatton finished with a time of 2:59.77 to beat favorite Emily Harrop of France. Harrop earned silver in 3:02.15, finishing 2.38 seconds behind, while Spain's Ana Alonso Rodriguez captured bronze with a time of 3:10.22.
Harrop had posted the fastest time heading into the final at 3:03.34 after winning both her heat and semifinal. But reigning world champion Fatton managed to capitalize on Harrop's slower transitions to win the final.
Ski mountaineering, often called "skimo," requires athletes to ascend mountains both on skis and on foot before a downhill race decides the winner. The women's sprint featured three ascent stages, with athletes starting with skis attached before removing them to tackle the course on foot. They subsequently reattach their skis for another ascent, later stripping off the skins for the final descent.
Snowy conditions at the Stelvio Ski Centre made conditions particularly challenging for athletes, as they showcased ski mountaineering to Olympic audiences for the first time. The International Ski Mountaineering Federation was founded in 2007 and gained IOC recognition in 2016.
"It's a magical day," the 30-year-old said after Thursday's win. "It's history for our sport, and for us as athletes, and it's wonderful."
China's Xu Mengtao became the first Olympic skier to win women's aerials gold on Wednesday, surpassing Team USA's Kaila Kuhn after scoring 112.90 points in the super final.
Kuhn came in fifth after attempting a triple and landing awkwardly, leaning heavily on the back of her skis as her hand dragged through the snow. The difficult finish ultimately cost the two-time Olympian a medal opportunity.
Australia's Danielle Scott earned silver despite showing impeccable form until a shaky landing put her more than 10 points behind Xu. China's Shao Qi claimed bronze without attempting the triple, instead landing a clean back lay-full-full.
Kuhn entered the Olympics with momentum after winning her first career World Cup victory earlier this season. Kuhn made history at those world championships, becoming the first aerialist to win two gold medals at a single competition. She captured both the women's event and mixed team event alongside fellow Team USA standouts Quinn Dehlinger and Christopher Lillis.
Team USA's Winter Vinecki finished sixth after falling on the back of her skis during landing, while teammate Tasia Tanner qualified for the final but did not advance to the super final.
Five of six super final competitors attempted a back full-full-full, with the trick involving three consecutive backflips, each with a full 360-degree twist.
Mikaela Shiffrin returned to the top of the podium Wednesday, as the US star won the women's slalom by a dominant 1.50 seconds at the 2026 Winter Olympics — her first medal since 2018.
The 30-year-old posted a combined time of 1:39.10 across two runs. Switzerland's Camille Rast took silver, while Sweden's Anna Swenn Larsson claimed bronze at age 34, becoming the oldest slalom medalist in Olympic history.
Shiffrin led Wednesday's race from the start. She posted 47.13 seconds in the first run, building a 0.82-second lead before going last in the second run and sealing the victory.
The victory ends an eight-year Olympic medal drought. She went nine consecutive events without reaching the podium, including six at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, where she failed to finish three races. In Cortina, she's finished fourth in the team combined and 11th in giant slalom.
Mikaela Shiffrin Leaves Her Mark on the Olympic Slopes
The slalom triumph mirrored Shiffrin's Sochi 2014 gold medal performance, won at just 18 years old. Now, 12 years later, she becomes only the second skier to win two Olympic slalom golds, joining Switzerland's Vreni Schneider.
"Maybe just today, I realized what happened in Sochi," an emotional Shiffrin said afterward. "It's crazy."
The gold also makes Shiffrin the most decorated US alpine skier in Olympic history, with three golds and four total medals. Additionally, she holds the record for most World Cup victories with 108 wins.
The winningest alpine skier in FIS World Cup history has one shot left at a 2026 Winter Games podium finish, as Team USA star Mikaela Shiffrin hunts her first Olympic medal in nine straight attempts in Wednesday's women's slalom final.
While Shiffrin entered this month's Olympics having won the event seven times across her most recent eight World Cup starts, the US standout has struggled so far in Cortina — four years after failing to medal at the 2022 Beijing Games.
After a 15th-place slalom run — notably amid difficult course conditions — pushed Shiffrin and teammate Breezy Johnson down to fourth in last week's team combined, the 30-year-old posted an 11th-place finish in Sunday's giant slalom, an event in which Shiffrin won gold at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics.
In a sport where split-second margins determine victory or defeat, Shiffrin preempted her critics by reframing the outcome of her Sunday race, saying "when I think about it, I'm [only] three tenths off of the podium."
"It's such a high level of competition," Shiffrin explained. "It is really, really cool that we as athletes were able to showcase that on this day."
How to watch Mikaela Shiffrin in the Olympic women's slalom
The USA ski star will cap the 2026 Winter Games with her best event, racing in the women's slalom on Wednesday.
Shiffrin will race for Olympic hardware beginning at 4 AM ET, live on USA Network.
Connor Watkins had been planning the moment for a year. And on Thursday, at the base of the Winter Olympics Super-G course in Cortina d'Ampezzo, he made it happen.
Watkins dropped to one knee in the finish line, proposing to his girlfriend, downhill gold medalist Breezy Johnson. Wearing a Team USA jacket, Watkins raised a silver ring with a blue gem at its center as competitors and coaches from multiple countries gathered nearby. Johnson said yes as her US teammates and skiing officials cheered.
Apparently, Johnson gave Watkins the idea. "I may have told him that I just always kind of had the dream of getting engaged at the Olympics," she said.
The Connor Watkins proposal capped a rollercoaster morning for the 30-year-old downhill champion. Johnson crashed out of the Super-G final and did not finish, joining more than a dozen skiers who failed to complete the course.
Just the day before, Johnson and teammate Mikaela Shiffrin finished fourth in the women's team combined after Johnson led the downhill portion.
However, none of it dimmed the occasion. "There's nothing better than doing well and having somebody to share it with," Johnson said after Watkins proposed.
The new engagement ring now joins Johnson's women's downhill gold medal, after she became just the second U.S. woman to claim the top Olympic title after Lindsey Vonn in 2010.
Milano-Cortina marks Johnson's second Winter Olympics. She also competed at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, finishing seventh in the downhill and 14th in the Super-G, before sitting out Beijing 2022 with injury.
Every Wednesday in February, JWS celebrates Black History Month by spotlighting a prominent Black figure in women's sports history.
Team USA skier Bonnie St. John broke barriers in Innsbruck, Austria, in 1984, when she became the first-ever African-American athlete to win a Paralympic medal at the Winter Games.
A one-legged amputee from childhood, St. John taught herself to ski at 15 years old using photocopied instructions and donated gear, going on to train at Vermont's Burke Mountain Academy and later qualifying for the 1984 Games with the US Paralympic Ski Team.
There, the San Diego product took bronze in both the slalom and giant slalom races before winning silver for overall performance across the three alpine skiing disciplines — making her the world's second fastest woman on one leg that year.
Following her athletic career, St. John graduated from Harvard and became a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, then later served as director for the National Economic Council under President Clinton and launched a career in corporate leadership.
"I'm not only just a role model to say, 'See what I did, you can do it, too,' but to actually give people the tools and the techniques and the research to understand how to break through those barriers," St. John said. "I love that I get to do that."
Defending Olympic champion Jakara Anthony could not complete her bid to become the first woman to win moguls gold twice on Wednesday. Instead, the Australian slipped in the 2026 Winter Olympics final, finishing eighth.
The 27-year-old dominated Tuesday's qualifiers with a score of 81.65, leading after the first final as the field narrowed from 20 to eight. But Anthony subsequently caught an edge after the second final's first jump, spinning out and struggling to finish.
The error dropped her to eighth place, opening the door for Team USA's Elizabeth Lemley to claim gold with a score of 82.30.
Lemley's teammate Jaelin Kauf placed second with 80.77, marking her second consecutive Olympic moguls silver after Beijing 2022. France's Perrine Laffont, the 2018 champion, claimed bronze with 78.00 after barely qualifying for the final.
"I'm bummed, obviously," Anthony said after the fall.
"I think I was skiing and jumping at such a high level and skiing with good speed... I showed that in the first couple rounds, but I just didn't put it down on that last one when it counted."
Jakara Anthony found winning form ahead of 2026 Winter Olympics
Anthony arrived in Cortina as the event favorite after recovering from a collarbone injury that sidelined her during the 2024/25 season.
She won three of four World Cup moguls events this year, leading the FIS overall moguls standings with 26 career World Cup wins. She also broke aerial skier Jacqui Cooper's record for most World Cup victories by an Australian in any discipline.
Anthony opened this year's Winter Games on a high, serving as Australia's flag bearer at last week's Opening Ceremony. The Beijing 2022 gold medalist had hoped to secure Australia's first Olympic medal of 2026.
Despite the setback, Anthony remains Australia's most successful winter athlete in FIS World Cup history with 42 career podiums.