Recently, Lindsey Vonn has openly said she is still unsure about her future in the sport, admitting, “I’m not in a position emotionally to make that decision at this point.” But just weeks later, she made a surprise appearance at the Met Gala. It came only three months after she suffered a serious leg fracture in a Winter Olympics crash, yet she was able to walk without crutches on the red carpet. That moment stood out as a clear sign of progress in her recovery. And if that wasn’t enough, the U.S. Ski Team’s latest announcement provided a potential update on her return.
On May 8, the U.S. Alpine Ski Team announced 48 athletes nominated for the 2026-27 season, and Vonn is part of that group. She is listed on the U.S. Alpine “A Team” alongside top names like Mikaela Shiffrin, a three-time Olympic gold medalist and World Cup overall champion, and Olympic downhill winner Breezy Johnson.
The important part here is that this nomination is not a final confirmation. It is the first stage in the selection process and is largely based on past performance. Athletes still need to accept their spots and meet performance requirements before the roster is made official in October.
The 2026-27 FIS Alpine Ski World Cup season is set to begin on October 25, 2026, with the giant slalom at the Rettenbach Glacier in Sölden, Austria. So while nothing is confirmed yet, Lindsey Vonn’s remaining in the system keeps the possibility of a return open, even if it is not certain.
Before her Olympic crash, Vonn had already shown she was still competitive at the highest level. In the 2025-26 World Cup season, she won the opening downhill at St. Moritz, secured her 83rd career World Cup victory, became the oldest winner in World Cup skiing history at 41, and added multiple podium finishes. Later, she also claimed her 84th career World Cup win on January 10, 2026, in Zauchensee, Austria, in a shortened downhill race.
That run of results showed she wasn’t just making a comeback; Lindsey Vonn was still competing at the very top of the sport. But things have changed since then, and now her return this season already looks uncertain for one big reason.
Lindsey Vonn’s comeback window shrinks as recovery timeline stretches on
Lindsey Vonn’s return to skiing this season seems challenging, and a lot of that has to do with the severity of her injury and recovery. In the Olympic downhill, she suffered a severe fracture of her left leg, which required eight surgeries, and was so complicated that it almost led to amputation. Even now, her recovery is not complete. She still needs at least one more surgery to repair a torn ACL in the same knee, which pushes her timeline further back.
On top of that, she has been very open about how slow the process is. She has moved from a wheelchair to crutches and is only beginning to walk short distances again. But she herself has said she is still far from anything close to training at a competitive level. “Regardless, nothing would really happen until [the 2027-28 season] because I still have one more surgery left to take out the metal and to replace my ACL. That still needs to happen,” Vonn said.
“Once I get my ACL fixed, then that’s another six months, so I have at least, I would say a year and a half ahead of me before I could really be back to 100%, even just training in the gym.” That long recovery window is one of the biggest reasons a return this season is unlikely. Even if Lindsey Vonn wanted to, her body simply has a lot of healing left to do.
At the same time, Lindsey Vonn is not rushing to any decision about her future. She admitted she is still in “survival mode that I just want to get through this phase and be able to assess where I am in my life. And take count of what I’ve done and take count of what could be and make decisions in a much better place than where I am now. I don’t want to make a decision now because I think that would be rash and probably too emotional, and I don’t want to make a mistake, you know?”
Lindsey Vonn has already recovered from an ACL injury in 2013, but at 41 years old, she has to find extra gears to defy physics and make another winning comeback.
