Lindsey Vonn's injuries over 3 decades range from torn knees to a thumb sliced open on champagne

From slicing her thumb open on a champagne bottle to repeatedly damaging her knees on downhill courses, Lindsey Vonn’s injury history spans three different decades of elite ski racing.

Her latest crash came Friday in the 41-year-old American’s final downhill before the Milan Cortina Olympics. Vonn injured her left knee and was airlifted off the course but said she still hopes to recover in time for the Winter Games, which open next Friday.

She did not disclose any details of her injury.

Vonn — the third skier to crash in the World Cup race in Crans-Montana, Switzerland — lost control when landing a jump and ended up tangled in the safety nets on the upper portion of the course.

Here’s a look at some of Vonn’s other major crashes and injuries:

Scary fall during downhill training at the Turin Olympics caused a bruised thigh, aching back and sore pelvis. She left the hospital — even trying to grab her belongings and sneak out when the checkout process was taking longer than she wanted — and competed less than 48 hours later. She wound up racing in all four events she’d planned, with a top result of seventh in the super-G. “It’s definitely weird,” she said back then, “going from the hospital bed to the start gate.”

Partially tore her right ACL in training. Sat out her last two races at the world championships in Are, Sweden, after winning two silvers earlier. Missed the rest of that World Cup season.

Safe to say Vonn’s oddest injury came off the slopes during the world championships in Val d’Isere, when she needed surgery after hurting herself with a champagne bottle during a photo op gone awry after winning gold in the downhill. “I’m not going to be opening champagne bottles any time soon — probably not for the rest of my life,” Vonn said about a month later. “That’s a mistake you definitely learn from.”

Crashed on the first run of a World Cup giant slalom in Lienz, Austria, losing her balance after a sharp turn and falling backward. She wound up not missing a race.

Slammed her right leg in slalom practice 10 days before the Vancouver Olympics started. Initially, could barely walk. Needed painkillers and a Novocaine-like numbing cream; also smeared a semisoft Austrian cheese, topfen, on her leg as a home remedy. Raced in the Winter Games, earning two medals: the first Olympic downhill gold for an American woman, and a bronze in the super-G. But she spun out of control during the giant slalom, breaking her right pinkie.

Injured her head in a fall during World Cup practice in Austria. About a week later, she initially decided to compete — “skiing in a fog,” Vonn called it — at the world championships in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, before eventually withdrawing.

Vonn needed reconstructive surgery after tumbling when she landed in a patch of soft snow during the super-G at the 2013 world championships in Schladming, Austria. She tried to come back but got hurt again in a crash while training in Colorado in November and during a World Cup downhill at Val d’Isere, France, in December, tearing her repaired ACL and requiring another operation on her right knee. Announced in January 2014 she would have to miss the Sochi Olympics.

Injured during preseason training camp in New Zealand. Wasn’t ready to return at the start of the World Cup season in October, but did compete in late November.

Crashed during a World Cup super-G in Andorra. Taken off the mountain in a sled. Competed again the next day, but then went nearly a year without participating in a World Cup race afterward.

Hurt during a training run in her home state of Colorado. Needed surgery. The injury led to nerve damage; she couldn’t move her fingers initially and taped a ski pole to her right glove when she returned to racing. Vonn said later she worried about whether she would be able to use her hand in a normal way ever again and has called it the “hardest recovery of my career.”

Vonn hyper-extended her left knee and sprained a ligament while training in November 2018. But she pushed on in what would be her final season before a nearly six-year retirement. At Cortina in January, 2019, Vonn was reduced to tears when she couldn’t finish a super-G in Cortina d’Ampezzo. “I’ve had four surgeries on my right knee. I’ve got no LCL (lateral collateral ligament) on my left knee. I’ve got two braces on. There’s only so much I can handle and I might have reached my maximum,” Vonn said then.

Vonn announced after her Cortina ordeal that she would retire after competing the following month at the 2019 world championships in Are, Sweden. During her first race at those worlds, a super-G, Vonn had yet another tumble into the safety netting. After straddling a gate mid-air she ended up sliding down the hill face first. But she came back five days later and won bronze in downhill.

Vonn went through several surgeries during her retirement until she found a solution for her right knee. In April 2024, Vonn had a robot-assisted replacement. Part of the bone in her right knee was cut off and replaced by two titanium pieces. A month later, she was planning her comeback.

AP Sports writers Howard Fendrich and Pat Graham contributed.

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

United States' Lindsey Vonn at the finish line after crashing, during an alpine ski, women's World Cup downhill, in Crans Montana , Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Giovanni Auletta)

United States' Lindsey Vonn at the finish line after crashing, during an alpine ski, women's World Cup downhill, in Crans Montana , Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Pier Marco Tacca)

United States' Lindsey Vonn at the finish line after crashing, during an alpine ski, women's World Cup downhill, in Crans Montana , Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Giovanni Auletta)

United States' Lindsey Vonn holds her left knee after crashing, during an alpine ski, women's World Cup downhill, in Crans Montana, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)

United States' Lindsey Vonn approaches the finish area after crashing, during an alpine ski, women's World Cup downhill, in Crans Montana, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has opened a federal civil rights investigation into the shooting of Alex Pretti, the Minneapolis resident killed Saturday by Border Patrol officers, federal officials said Friday.

“We’re looking at everything that would shed light on what happened that day and in the days and weeks leading up to what happened,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said during a news conference.

Blanche did not explain why DOJ decided to open an investigation into Pretti’s killing, but has said a similar probe is not warranted in the Jan. 7 death of Renee Good, who was shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis. He said only on Friday that the Civil Rights Division does not investigate every law enforcement shooting and that there have to be circumstances and facts that “warrant an investigation.”

“President Trump has said repeatedly, ‘Of course, this is something we’re going to investigate,’” Blanche said of the Pretti shooting.

The Department of Homeland Security also said Friday that the FBI will lead the federal probe into Pretti's death.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem first disclosed the shift in which agency was leading the investigation during a Fox News interview Thursday evening. Her department previously said Homeland Security Investigations, a departmental unit, would head the investigation.

“We will continue to follow the investigation that the FBI is leading and giving them all the information that they need to bring that to conclusion, and make sure that the American people know the truth of the situation and how we can go forward and continue to protect the American people,” Noem said, speaking to Fox host Sean Hannity.

Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said Homeland Security Investigations will support the FBI in the investigation. Separately, Customs and Border Protection, which is part of DHS, is doing its own internal investigation into the shooting, during which two officers opened fire on Pretti.

DHS did not immediately respond to questions about when the change was made or why. The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

It was not immediately clear whether the FBI would share information and evidence with Minnesota state investigators, who have thus far been frozen out of the federal probe.

In the same interview, Noem appeared to distance herself from statements she made shortly after the shooting, claiming Pretti had brandished a handgun and aggressively approached officers.

Multiple videos that emerged of the shooting contradicted that claim, showing the intensive care nurse had only his mobile phone in his hand as officers tackled him to the ground, with one removing a handgun from the back of Pretti's pants as another officer began firing shots into his back.

Pretti had a state permit to legally carry a concealed firearm. At no point did he appear to reach for it, the videos showed.

The change in agency comes after two other videos emerged of an earlier altercation between Pretti and federal immigration officers 11 days before his death.

The Jan. 13 videos show Pretti yelling at federal vehicles and at one point appearing to spit before kicking out the taillight of one vehicle. A struggle ensues between Pretti and several officers, during which he is forced to the ground. Pretti's winter coat comes off, and he either breaks free or the officers let him go and he scurries away.

When he turns his back to the camera, what appears to be a handgun is visible in his waistband. At no point do the videos show Pretti reaching for the gun, and it is not clear whether federal agents saw it.

Steve Schleicher, a Minneapolis-based attorney representing Pretti’s parents, said Wednesday the earlier altercation in no way justified officers fatally shooting Pretti more than a week later.

In a post on his Truth Social platform early Friday morning, President Donald Trump suggested that the videos of the earlier incident undercut the narrative that Pretti was a peaceful protester when he was shot.

“Agitator and, perhaps, insurrectionist, Alex Pretti’s stock has gone way down with the just released video of him screaming and spitting in the face of a very calm and under control ICE Officer, and then crazily kicking in a new and very expensive government vehicle, so hard and violent, in fact, that the taillight broke off in pieces,” Trump's post said. “It was quite a display of abuse and anger, for all to see, crazed and out of control. The ICE Officer was calm and cool, not an easy thing to be under those circumstances!”

Associated Press reporters Eric Tucker contributed from Washington.

A photo of Alex Pretti is displayed during a vigil for Alex Pretti by nurses and their supporters outside VA NY Harbor Healthcare System, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)