'I Tried. I Dreamed. I Leaped In... That's the Beauty of Life'

"We always take risks in life. We dream. We love. We leap in. And sometimes we fall. But that is also the beauty of life."

Lindsey Vonn, the 42-year-old American skiing legend whose miraculous Olympic comeback ended in misfortune after just 13 seconds, awoke from surgery on Feb. 10 (Korea time) and posted a message on social media that was surprisingly about courage and beauty.

On Feb. 8, during the women's alpine skiing downhill event at the Tofane Alpine Ski Center in Cortina, Italy, for the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, Vonn collided with a gate during an early jump and crashed, shattering her tibia into multiple pieces. The race marked her return just nine days after suffering a serious ACL tear. She was airlifted from the scene and underwent surgery at a local hospital.

"The fact that I was standing in the start gate with the possibility of winning was already a victory in itself," Vonn reflected, adding, "I tried. I dreamed. I leaped in." She continued: "If there's one thing you can take away from my journey, it's to have the courage to 'dare greatly.'"

Regarding the circumstances of her injury, she wrote: "The margin between skiing the course strategically and catastrophic injury is only 5 inches. I went 5 inches too tight, my arm caught inside the gate, and I went down. My previous injuries had nothing to do with this accident."

She added: "It wasn't the ending I had hoped for, and it came with extreme pain, but I have no regrets. Just like ski racing, life is about taking risks."

Vonn retired in 2019 after winning gold in the downhill at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and bronze at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics. She returned to competition after receiving a titanium artificial knee joint implant and competed in this Olympics.