Lindsey Vonn Suffered A Tragic Loss After Her Brutal 2026 Olympics Injury

Olympic downhill skier Lindsey Vonn has overcome several tragedies in her life, and the hits kept coming in 2026. After suffering from a torn ACL leading up to the 2026 Olympics, Vonn ultimately crashed in Italy on February 8. The devastation of the impact required Vonn to be airlifted from the mountainside, but Vonn mentioned in a February 14 Instagram post that she understood the risks before competing. However, there's more to the tragedy behind Vonn's catastrophic fall than just her injuries — in fact, there's been another major loss in her life.

According to her February 18 Instagram post, Vonn lost her beloved dog Leo on nearly the same day she crashed. "This has been an incredibly hard few days," she wrote, acknowledging that, "I still have not come to terms that he is gone." Her precious pup had been struggling with his own health issues, but Vonn was lucky enough to see and snuggle with him before saying goodbye for good.

As Vonn tells it, Leo "has been with me since my second ACL injury, when I needed him most." As most dogs do, he was a prolific cuddler and comforter, but with Vonn's catastrophic 2026 injury, the loss of Leo seems to be hitting her harder than expected. "It's going to be a while before I emotionally process things but I know he will always be with me," she wrote. As for her injuries, the road to yet another transformation for Vonn appears to be long.

With the loss of both her Olympic career and cherished pet, it seems that Lindsey Vonn has quite a difficult path carved out for her. Of course, Vonn has been through her fair share of health troubles, but the skier admitted that she hasn't "stood on my feet in over a week," according to a February 16 post on X, formerly Twitter. Vonn admitted that she's "been in a hospital bed immobile since my race," but was looking forward to returning home. However, to get back to the United States required some tricky medical footwork as Vonn was forced to remain in a hospital bed.

On February 17, Vonn posted on Instagram about the grueling process of being transferred from the ICU in Italy all the way back to an American hospital without ever leaving her hospital bed. She acknowledged that her "leg is still in pieces," while giving thanks to the medical experts who helped her return home. Though she knows that her "injury was a lot more severe than just a broken leg," she acknowledges that her rehabilitation will be harder than initially thought. Of course, you never truly get over the devastating loss of a best friend like Leo.