Roster announcement and squad status

U.S. Ski and Snowboard announced its 2026-2027 Alpine World Cup team on 8 October 2026, naming Lindsey Vonn among 17 athletes on the primary roster. The federation confirmed that all selected skiers qualified through established Alpine performance criteria, while the International Ski and Snowboard Federation granted Vonn a wild card for the circuit. The American roster also features Mikaela Shiffrin, who holds 110 World Cup victories and won the overall crystal globe last winter, alongside Olympic downhill champion Breezy Johnson. Although Vonn holds a roster spot, medical schedules prevent her from competing in the season opener in Soelden, Austria, which holds a giant slalom in late October.

Lindsey Vonn, a three-time Olympic medallist and winner of 84 World Cup races, who is continuing her rehabilitation following injuries sustained at the Milan-Cortina Olympic Games, has also been named to the team.

Olympic fall and surgical treatment

Vonn suffered severe lower-body trauma on 8 February 2026 during the Olympic downhill event in Cortina d'Ampezzo. Entering the race with a torn anterior cruciate ligament suffered weeks earlier at Crans-Montana, Switzerland, she lost control seconds into her run. The impact caused a complex fracture of her left tibia, a fracture of the fibula, and extensive damage to the tibial plateau. Emergency medical teams stabilized the leg with an external fixation frame before transferring her to a Milan hospital, where surgeons prevented amputation of the limb.

I can deal with a lot of pain, but this was so extreme. It's not even been in the universe of pain with this injury as what I've had before.

Vonn underwent eight surgical operations across Italy and the United States to repair the limb. Following the Cortina accident, her father, Alan Kildow, publicly argued that the severity of the fractures should end her athletic career.

Surgery schedule and return outlook

The American skier, who turns 42 on 18 October 2026, faces further medical procedures before attempting any return to physical training. Doctors in the United States have scheduled an operation for November 2026 to extract metal stabilization hardware from her left leg and reconstruct her torn anterior cruciate ligament. That procedure will require an estimated six months of post-operative recovery, ruling out participation across the 2026-2027 World Cup calendar.

Regardless, nothing would really happen until '27-28 because I still have one more surgery left to take out the metal and to replace my ACL. That still needs to happen.

Vonn stated in April 2026 that she anticipates at least 18 months of structured physical rehabilitation before her body reaches full training condition. She confirmed she has not finalized whether she will retire permanently or pursue competition in the 2027-2028 winter season.

Prior comeback and career record

The roster nomination follows an earlier return to international competition. Vonn originally stepped away from alpine skiing in 2019, undergoing a partial replacement of her right knee before launching a competitive comeback in 2024. During the 2025-2026 campaign, she secured seven podium finishes in eight World Cup races, capturing two victories prior to her knee injury in Switzerland.

She entered the Cortina Games leading the downhill discipline standings and finished the season ranked fifth in downhill and 12th in the overall World Cup classification. With 84 World Cup victories and three Olympic medals, Vonn remains the second most successful women's alpine racer in World Cup history, trailing only Shiffrin. The tour features a downhill at Beaver Creek, Colorado, on 11 December 2026, though Vonn's recovery timeline prevents her participation.