Lindsey Vonn's ankle is "still broken" five months after her horror downhill skiing crash at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games.

The 41-year-old alpine ski racer's recovery has "been a very slow process" and is still ongoing after she fell on the slopes during the women's downhill final on February 8 and was airlifted to hospital, where the star underwent four surgeries to repair a complex tibia fracture in her left leg.

Lindsey added to People: "It's been five months since I've been able to actually go to the gym in a somewhat meaningful way. And walking is actually still really hard for me. My ankle is still broken."

After months of getting by in a wheelchair and later on crutches, Lindsey is pleased to be walking unaided again.

She said: "I was in a wheelchair for so long, I was on crutches for so long.

"It was honestly almost three and a half months that I was unable to walk unassisted. I got very emotional when I was able to walk on my own."

On July 7, Lindsey - who competed in the 2026 Winter Olympics despite tearing her ACL (anterior cruciate knee ligament) shortly before the Games - marked her five-month recovery by telling her Instagram followers that she is regaining her strength.

She posted a video of her progressively working towards standing and working out in a gym again, with the caption: "I knew one day I'd get here, just didn't know how long it would take me…

"It took 5 months, but I'm finally here! Still a very long road ahead but my strength is coming back (maybe more mentally than physically still but that's not a bad thing ;) (sic)."

In February, Lindsey told how she almost had her leg amputated after her horror crash, and credited orthopedic surgeon Dr Tom Hackett, who works with Team USA, with saving her leg.

In a post on Instagram, she explained: "I had a complex tibia fracture, I also fractured my fibia head and the reason it was so complex was because I had compartment syndrome.

"Compartment syndrome is when you have so much trauma to one area that there is too much blood and it gets stuck. It basically crushes everything - muscles, nerves, tendons, it dies.

"Dr Tom Hackett saved my leg from being amputated. He did what is called a fasciotomy, he cut open both sides of my leg and let it breathe and he saved me.

"It will take around a year for all of the bones to heal and then I will decide if I want to take out all the metal or not, and then go back into surgery and finally fix my ACL. Life is life, we have to take the punches as they come. (sic)"

Lindsey is convinced that her torn ACL injury before the 2026 Winter Olympics ultimately helped her because it meant her doctor was on stand-by when she crashed.

She added: "If I hadn't torn my ACL, which I would have done anyways in this crash, Doctor Tom Hackett wouldn't have been there. He wouldn't have been able to save my leg.

"He saved my leg from being amputated. I always talk about everything happening for a reason ... I feel very lucky and grateful for him, for this six-hour surgery. (sic)"