The Olympic skier says the physical pain wasn’t the hardest part.

Lindsey Vonn is opening up about the emotional toll of the most serious injury of her career—one that nearly cost her way more than a medal.

Following a devastating crash at the 2026 Winter Olympics, the 41-year-old alpine ski legend has been open about both the physical and mental battles she now faces. In a post shared on X on Tuesday, February 24, Vonn admitted, “Today was a hard day.”

“My physical battle began the second I got hurt but the mental battle started today,” Vonn wrote. “It hit me like a ton of bricks. It’s a battle I’m used to because I’ve done it so many times. I have always learned from every injury. Each one has made me a better and stronger person in different ways…but the battle of the mind can be dark and hard and unrelenting.”

“Someone I care about said I am a ‘master at the psychological game of life,’” she ended her post. “I don’t know if that’s true….I do know hard days are coming but I will find a way back to the top of the mountain of life.”

Vonn crashed just 13 seconds into her women’s downhill run on February 8—only a week after tearing her ACL. She was airlifted to a hospital for major surgery after sustaining what she later described as a complex tibia fracture. In an Instagram post the following day, she said, “Yesterday my Olympic dream did not finish the way I dreamt it would,” adding, “It wasn’t a story book ending or a fairy tail, it was just life.”

The injury proved even more severe than initially understood. After undergoing five surgeries, Vonn revealed in a video Monday, February 24 that doctors had to act quickly to prevent amputation. “Dr. Tom Hackett saved my leg. He saved my leg from being amputated,” she said emotionally in a video update.

She described the injury as “the most extreme and painful and challenging injury I’ve ever faced in my entire life times one hundred,” explaining that “everything is in pieces.” She revealed in the caption that the injury will take about a year to heal, then she can decide if she wants to remove the metal in her leg. She also revealed that after that, she can go “back into surgery and finally fix [her] ACL.”

Vonn has secured three Olympic medals—one gold and two bronze—along with eight World Championship medals. She also boasts 82 World Cup race victories, the fourth-most of all time, and 20 World Cup crystal globes.