Lindsey Vonn now has a partner to rehab with as she recovers from her torn ACL and subsequent broken leg, suffered at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Her sister, Karin Kildow, is also recovering from a torn ACL, the Olympic skier revealed via her Instagram Stories on Wednesday, March 18.
“Welcome to the Vonn rehab center,” Vonn, 41, wrote over a video of her sister entering the gym on crutches.
In the video, Vonn is heard off-camera yelling, “Karin joins the rehab program!”
As Vonn continues her recovery, she has made it clear that her focus is on getting healthy, following an ordeal that nearly cost her left leg.
“No, I’m not ready to discuss my future in skiing,” she wrote via X on Sunday, March 15. “My focus has been on recovering from my injury and getting back to normal life. I was already retired for 6 years and have an amazing life outside of skiing. It was incredible to be #1 in the world again at 41 years old and set new records in my sport, but at my age, I’m the only one that will decide my future.”
The Olympic gold medalist added that she has not decided either way about her future.
“Also… just because I’m not ready to talk about retiring, doesn’t mean I’m racing,” she continued. “It means I’m not ready to think about it yet. Rehab and recovery first…decide on where I go next in life later. Lots of life left to live. Will cross that bridge when I get to it.”
Despite tearing her ACL weeks before the 2026 games, Vonn decided to compete, only to crash 13 seconds into her first run on February 8. She was airlifted to a hospital and later revealed that she suffered a complex tibia fracture, fractured fibular head, fractured tibial plateau and a broken ankle.
“It has been quite the journey and by far the most extreme and painful and challenging injury I have ever faced in my entire life times a hundred,” she wrote via Instagram on February 23.
Vonn went on to thank Dr. Tom Hackett, who she said “saved my leg.”
“He saved my leg from being amputated,” she said. “He did what’s called a fasciotomy, where he cut open both sides of my leg and kind of filleted it open so to speak, let it breathe, and he saved me.”
Vonn continued, “I always talk about [how] everything happens for a reason, but if I hadn’t torn my ACL, which I would have torn anyway with this crash, if I hadn’t done that, Tom wouldn’t have been there. He wouldn’t have been able to save my leg, so I feel very lucky and grateful for him, for the six hour surgery he put in on Wednesday to rebuild it, which went amazingly well.”
