Lindsey Vonn is 'confident' she can race at Olympics despite ruptured ACL in left knee

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Lindsey Vonn is “confident” she can compete at the upcoming Milan Cortina Winter Olympics with a torn ACL from a crash four days ago.

Vonn said on Tuesday the damage to her left knee was a “completely ruptured” ACL, bone bruising “plus meniscal damage.”

After three days of physical therapy and doctors' advice, Vonn tried skiing on Tuesday. She did not appear to be limping as she entered and exited a news conference.

“My knee is not swollen, and with the help of a knee brace, I am confident that I can compete on Sunday," Vonn said.

“So this is not obviously what I had hoped for. I know what my chances were before the crash and I know my chances aren’t the same as it stands today but I know there’s still a chance. And as long as there’s a chance, I will try.

“I will do everything in my power to be in the starting gate."

Vonn crashed in a World Cup downhill in Crans-Montana, Switzerland on Friday and ended up in the safety nets. After skiing to the bottom of the course she was taken to hospital.

The 41-year-old American was expected to be one of the biggest stars of the Winter Games, which start Friday with the opening ceremony. Her first race comes two days later in the women’s downhill. Vonn also plans on competing in super-G and the new team combined event.

The opening women’s downhill training session is scheduled for Thursday.

Teammate Bella Wright said Vonn has what it takes — a strong mental state — to ski through her injuries.

“If anyone can do it, it’s Lindsey,” Wright said.

Breezy Johnson, the downhill and combined world champion, was in a similar situation to Vonn at Cortina during a World Cup weekend in 2022.

“I’ve tried and failed to ski this course with no ACL and that doesn’t mean that she can’t do it,” Johnson said. “There are more athletes that ski without ACLs and with knee damage than what we talk about.”

Andrea Panzeri, the chief physician for the Italian Winter Sports Federation, said numerous athletes have competed at elite level with a torn ACL and other severe knee issues.

Vonn’s fellow downhiller Sofia Goggia came back to win a silver medal at the 2022 Olympics weeks after spraining her left knee, partially tearing her ACL and suffering a “minor fracture” of the fibula bone in her leg — plus some tendon damage.

Italian freetsyle skier Flora Tabanelli tore the ACL in her right knee in November but put off surgery until after the Olympics.

Tabanelli is 18, though.

“But (Vonn) has experience, the physical ability and the experience on this course,” Panzeri said. “If she decides to try and race, it’s because her clinical condition and her doctors are allowing her to. She doesn’t have anything to lose. I think it’s worth a try.”

Vonn has had numerous crashes and injuries in her career. One of her worst was at the 2013 world championships in Schladming, Austria during a super-G that was also held in difficult conditions.

Vonn tore her right knee. She returned the following season, got hurt again and missed the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

She was also battered up before the 2019 world championships but took bronze in downhill before going into a nearly six-year retirement.

“I’ve been in this position before. I know how to handle it,” Vonn said. “I feel a lot better now than I did in 2019 . . . And I still got a medal there with no LCL and three tibial plateau fractures. So, like I said, this is not an unknown for me. I’ve done this before.”

Still, Vonn added, “This would be the best comeback I’ve done so far. Definitely the most dramatic.”

Vonn made a stunning comeback last season after nearly six years away. Skiing with a partial titanium implant in her right knee, she has been the circuit’s leading downhiller this season with two victories and three other podium finishes in five races.

Including super-G, Vonn completed eight World Cup races and finished on the podium in seven of them. Her worst finish was fourth.

Women’s skiing during the Games will be in Cortina, where Vonn holds the World Cup record with 12 wins.

She has won three Olympic medals: Gold in downhill and bronze in super-G in 2010 and bronze in downhill in 2018.

It hasn’t just been about recovery for Vonn these past few days.

On her way to Cortina, she stopped at the grave of her childhood coach Erich Sailer, who died in August aged 99.

Sailer coached Vonn at Buck Hill in Minnesota. He’s buried just outside Innsbruck, Austria.

Vonn said she shed some tears during the graveside visit – the only tears she’s shed these past few days.

“I miss him. And I know exactly what he would say to me right now. And it definitely gives me additional hope that I know that he would support me,” Vonn added.

“He would say, ‘It’s only 90 seconds. What’s 90 seconds in a lifetime? It’s nothing. You can do it.’” Vonn said. “That’s what he said to me before my last run in Are, and I know he would say it to me again today.”

Associated Press writer Jennifer McDermott contributed.

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

United States' Lindsey Vonn leaves after a press conference by the U.S. ski team at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

United States' Lindsey Vonn attends a press conference by the U.S. ski team at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

United States' Lindsey Vonn smiles during a press conference by the U.S. ski team at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

United States' Lindsey Vonn grimaces during a press conference by the U.S. ski team at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

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)

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 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)

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City police sergeant who hurled a plastic cooler at a man fleeing officers on a motorized scooter, causing a crash that killed the driver, says he was trying to protect other officers from being injured.

Testifying Monday at his manslaughter trial, Erik Duran said he was not trying to injure Eric Duprey, 30, when he threw the cooler full of ice, water and sodas in August 2023. Authorities have said Duprey, a father of three, had just sold drugs to an undercover officer when he tried to drive off.

Duprey, who was not wearing a helmet, lost control of his scooter and crashed into a tree before falling to the pavement. He suffered fatal head injuries and died almost instantaneously, prosecutors said.

“He was gonna crash into us,” Duran, 38, told the court. "I mean, I didn’t have time. All I had time for was to try again to stop or to try to get him to change directions. That’s all I had the time to think of.”

Besides the manslaughter charge, Duran also faces criminally negligent homicide and assault charges. The nonjury trial is being prosecuted by the state attorney general’s office, which investigates civilian deaths during encounters with law enforcement.

During their cross-examination, prosecutors suggested Duran had more time to think than he suggested, saying he chose to pick up a heavy cooler with both hands instead of telling the other officers to move.

Joseph Bianco, one of the prosecutors in the case, asked Duran if he had warned his colleagues about the approaching scooter. When Duran said he didn’t have time to do that, Bianco noted that what the officer “did have time to do is to take two steps forward down that sidewalk” and pick up the cooler.

Duran disputed that the cooler was heavy. He also testified that after the crash, he immediately tried to help Duprey when he saw his injuries.

“I said, ‘Can you hear me? Can you hear me?’ And then I started to notice his injury, and he was in bad shape,” Duran testified.

Duran faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted on the manslaughter count. Closing arguments were scheduled for Tuesday.

FILE - A memorial for Eric Duprey is seen in the Bronx borough of New York, Aug. 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Jake Offenhartz, File)