Lindsey Vonn Shares What Kept Her Going After Her Difficult Surgery On IG
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Lindsey Vonn has had several surgeries since 2019 to address damage to her knee.
The former Olympic skier shared a throwback post this week talking about her recovery from her most recent operation.
In the post, Lindsey shares that she 'always got back up.'
Lindsey Vonn is not afraid to be honest with her followers about the ups and downs she's experienced on her recent health journey.
The former Olympic skier has had to undergo several knee surgeries since her 2019 retirement, and while she's realistic about how hard it has been, she doesn’t let her struggles get her down. The 39-year-old shared photos from her most recent surgery alongside a motivational message.
“I’ve been bruised and broken but I’ve always come out the other side a better person. No matter how many times I fell, I always got back up. I didn’t do it alone,” Lindsey wrote beneath a carousel of photos from her recovery.
In the first pic, which was taken in July after Lindsey underwent one knee surgery to help her recover from the "damage" caused by her racing career, Lindsey sits in a wheelchair while sipping a drink and holding two pizza boxes post-op. She flashes a thumbs-up for the camera.
“This surgery is hopefully a big step to help me long term. We still have work to do, and most likely another surgery, but I hope this will help me for a bit,” she shared at the time.
This road to surgery and recovery has been a long one for the elite athlete. In November of 2018, Lindsey crashed while training in Colorado and “completely tore” her LCL, per the New York Times. The LCL, or the lateral collateral ligament, is a band of tissue that connects your thigh bone to your lower leg bones. Any tear can cause serious swelling, pain and issues walking, the Mayo Clinic explains.
She didn’t have the injury repaired right away because she had events already booked and “didn’t want to let anyone down,” she told the Times. Unfortunately, this caused more damage to her knee, Lindsey shared on Instagram. By the time the ski star had her surgery, she had another meniscus tear and needed chondroplasty, which is a procedure that helps reshape the damaged cartilage in a joint, per the Mayo Clinic.
In October 2023, Lindsey said she had a prep surgery to prepare for a knee replacement this spring. It’s unclear if the most recent surgery was the knee replacement or if Lindsey is on the mend from something else. What is certain, though, is her positive attitude.
“Every day I tried to put one foot in front of the other until it eventually got me back to where I wanted to go… which was usually the top of the mountain 🏔️ 😍,” Lindsey wrote beneath her photos. “We are all on our own paths, but if you’re injured or going through a hard time, believe in yourself and know that you will come out of it a better and stronger person. You got this 💪🏻”
In other photos on Instagram, Lindsey shows herself surrounded by friends and family in her hospital bed. Even her pup joined her in bed, which is too sweet!
Lindsey previously shared in her memoir, Rise, that she has struggled with depression since she was a kid and had previously used skiing as a coping mechanism, but her injuries made that impossible. She shared that she turned to journaling and napping as a form of self care when she’s feeling down.
“There was so much going on that in the afternoons I just needed to kind of unplug. Sleeping was one of the few times I could just shut my brain off and recover,” she told MSNBC when the book was released.
Lindsey also shared that walking her dogs outside has been a huge help in getting her up and outdoors every day.
You’re an inspiration, Lindsey!
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