“Dr. Tom Hackett saved my leg. He saved my leg from being amputated,” Vonn revealed in a video amid surgery recovery from her crash at the 2026 Winter Olympics

Cristiano Ronaldo, Lindsey Vonn.Credit : Raul Terrel/Europa Press via Getty; Lindsey Vonn/Instagram

Support is being shared from one GOAT to another.

Cristiano Ronaldo left an uplifting comment on Lindsey Vonn’s latest Instagram update in which she emotionally revealed that her left leg was almost amputated following her crash at the 2026 Winter Olympics earlier this month.

“Champions are defined by the moments they win, and the moments they refuse to give up. @lindseyvonn the mountains you conquered were never bigger than the strength you carry. Keep fighting. Legends always rise,” the soccer legend, 41, wrote in a comment on her post.

Cristiano Ronaldo at the Saudi Pro League match between Al Hilal v Al Nassr in the Kingdom Arena on April 4, 2025 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.Yasser Bakhsh/Getty

The three-time Olympic gold medalist, 41, responded, “@cristiano coming from you this means so much .”

In Vonn’s Instagram update, the professional skier shared that trauma from the crash led to compartment syndrome, and that her leg nearly had to be amputated as a result.

“After two weeks, I finally made it out of the hospital. It has been quite the journey and by far the most extreme and painful and challenging injury I’ve ever faced in my entire life, times one hundred. I’ll give you the full rundown,” Vonn began in a lengthy video update.

“Basically I had a complex tibia fracture… everything was in pieces,” she explained.

Cristiano Ronaldo pens a supportive comment on Lindsey Vonn’s Instagram on Feb. 23, 2026.Lindsey Vonn/Instagram

Speaking of her compartment syndrome, Vonn said “too much blood” in one area of her leg “crushed” everything, including her “muscles, nerves and tendons.”

Compartment syndrome is a painful buildup of pressure around your muscles that restricts the flow of blood, fresh oxygen and nutrients to your muscles and nerves, according to Cleveland Clinic, The medical condition is extremely painful, Vonn said in her video.

Vonn went on to praise her longtime doctor Tom Hackett and credited him as the reason why she still has both of her legs today.

Lindsey Vonn shares photos from her knee surgery.Lindsey Vonn/Instagram (2)

“Dr. Tom Hackett saved my leg. He saved my leg from being amputated,” she said, as she became emotional. “He did what’s called a fasciotomy, where he cut open both sides of my leg and kind of filleted it open… let it breath and, um, he saved me.”

On Feb. 8, amid her Olympics comeback, Vonn fractured her tibia after clipping a gate and sailing off course just 13 seconds into her run in the women’s downhill.

Vonn, who has since left the hospital, said that she’s currently in a wheelchair (she also revealed she broke her right ankle). In the next few weeks, she’ll be rehabbing her way to crutches.

Prior to her crash at the Olympics, Vonn tore her ACL on Jan. 30 at a World Cup race in Switzerland.

The decorated skier made clear in her latest video update that she has “no regrets.” She added, “It’s going to be a long road, but I alway fight. I’ll keep going.”