American alpine ski racer Lindsey Vonn recently crashed during the women’s downhill event at the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. Vonn faced backlash from some fans for competing in the Olympics despite being injured, which drew a strong reaction from former doubles World No. 1 Rennae Stubbs.
Before the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics began, Vonn suffered a brutal knee injury, rupturing her left anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). Despite this injury, she performed well during two training runs and decided to compete in the main event.
Rennae Stubbs Offers Support to Injured Lindsey Vonn
The women’s downhill competition at the 2026 Winter Olympics was held on Sunday, Feb. 8, at Olimpia delle Tofane in Cortina d’Ampezzo. Vonn started the race in 13th position but crashed in the upper part of the descent and had to be airlifted to the hospital.
BREAKING🚨: U.S. skiing veteran Lindsey Vonn crashes at the Winter Olympics; medevac’d by helicopter pic.twitter.com/J7Vamo3C6r
— Officer Lew (@officer_Lew) February 8, 2026
Criticism arose regarding Vonn skiing at the Olympics while injured. This led Stubbs to take to social media to express her confusion about why the 41-year-old was receiving backlash following her crash.
The Aussie stated that, despite the ACL tear, Vonn performed well in training. She asserted that the crash had nothing to do with her knee and that those who criticize her need to stop.
“For all you saying oh she shouldn’t have skied with the ACL tear blah blah. She skied twice on it already & came 3rd yesterday in training! It was her hard line to the gate & her right pole wrapping her arm into! It had nothing to do with her knee! So stop with the nonsense!” Stubbs posted on X.
For all you saying oh she shouldn’t have skied with the ACL tear blah blah. She skied twice on it already & came 3rd yesterday in training! It was her hard line to the gate & her right pole wrapping her arm into! It had nothing to do with her knee! So stop with the nonsense! pic.twitter.com/9YQ1DRHJlV
— Rennae Stubbs ♈️ (@rennaestubbs) February 8, 2026
Stubbs attributed Vonn’s accident to her “willingness to go closer to the gate line,” arguing that those who believe the crash was due to her knee injury are either “blind” or inexperienced in skiing.
“THATS RIGHT! it was a ski accident caused by her willingness to go closer to the gate line and she got her pole wrapped and it flung her in the air…people that think it was her knee are either BLIND or have never skied a day in their life…” Stubbs added.
THATS RIGHT! it was a ski accident caused by her willingness to go closer to the gate line and she got her pole wrapped and it flung her in the air…people that think it was her knee are either BLIND or have never skied a day in their life…
— Rennae Stubbs ♈️ (@rennaestubbs) February 8, 2026
Previously, Stubbs had also defended injured Vonn after she faced criticism for “taking a spot” from a healthy athlete.
“For all the “why is @lindseyvonn skiing & taking a spot from someone else who’s healthy when she has a torn ACL” crowd…just to update u non athletes, she’s is currently 3rd in the last training run in Cortina (in flat light btw)! So take a seat next time u think u know better!” Stubbs had posted.
It is worth noting that, before competing at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, Vonn received support from Coco Gauff and Iga Świątek for her decision to compete despite her injury.
