Lindsey Vonn’s beloved dog died the day of her Olympics crash, which left the star athlete with a broken leg and in need of multiple surgeries.
The Team USA gold medalist, 41, paid tribute Wednesday to Leo, 13, ahead of “more surgery,” as she reflected on “probably the hardest [days]” of her life.
“Leo has passed away and joined Lucy and Bear up in heaven,” Vonn wrote on Instagram. “This has been an incredibly hard few days. … I still have not come to terms that he is gone. The day I crashed, so did Leo.”
Leo, who’d already beaten lymphoma a year and a half prior, had lung cancer and a “failing” heart, Vonn said.
“He was in pain and his body could no longer keep up with his strong mind,” she wrote. “As I layed in my hospital bed the day after my crash, we said goodbye to my big boy. I had lost so much that meant something to me in such a short amount of time. I can’t believe it. My boy has been with me since my second ACL injury, when I needed him most. … He lifted me up when I was down.”
She credited Leo for “always making me feel safe and loved” and said they’d “been through so much together” throughout the years.
Vonn — whose Instagram Story featured multiple photos of Leo as well as her other late furry “family” members — said she would “be thinking of him” when she went under for surgery later Wednesday.
Fellow Olympians Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula and Monica Aksamit, were among those extending their sympathies to Vonn.
She suffered a “completely ruptured” ACL just days prior to crashing during her downhill run in Cortina, Italy on Feb. 8. Vonn, who was airlifted, sustained a complex tibia fracture in her left leg, and underwent four surgeries in Italy before returning to the U.S. for additional treatment.
Vonn shared in a Reel on Tuesday that her leg “is still in pieces…but I’m finally HOME!” on American soil.
She shared that sustained something “a lot more severe than just a broken leg” and promised more detail in coming days about “the road ahead.”
