Lindsey Vonn Doesn't Regret Clapping Back at Trolls After Winter Olympics Crash: 'Sometimes You Gotta Stand Up for Yourself' (Exclusive)

Lindsey Vonn posing at the 2025 ESPYs
Credit: Amy Sussman/Getty

NEED TO KNOW

• Lindsey Vonn isn't sorry about responding to some of her armchair critics after her Winter Olympics crash
• She says she was isolated in a hospital room for two and a half weeks with only her phone to keep her company, so couldn't help but read the comments
• She notes that there are very few people in the world who could understand the pressure she was under

Lindsey Vonn says she is on the way to getting her life back after the horrific leg injury she sustained during her 2026 Winter Olympics crash. Still, she recalls how isolating it was in the weeks after the Feb. 8 incident, and how her mental health suffered suffered significantly.

"It's definitely been up and down," she says of having depression after the accident. "I'd say in the last month, it's definitely gotten better, but of course there were really low moments. I hate being dependent on people, and was pretty much 100% dependent for everything. It was quite a challenge, just being in the hospital alone for two and a half weeks. Being completely immobile for that extended time period was so rough."

Vonn, who says she's now on crutches, was mostly alone with the beeps and blips of the machines — and her phone. Which meant she couldn't help but read all the things that were being said about her on social media.

"There were a million things that were being said online, that people were so convinced that they knew even though they don't really have a concept of ski racing, and what it physically takes," the Olympic gold medalist says. "So I think reading all of that online was hard. Of course, I tried not to read it, but I also didn't really have any other way of being connected to the outside world, because I was so isolated."

Vonn, who is currently working on an educational campaign about the magic of antibodies for Invivyd, () laughs that she couldn't help but reply to some of the critics.