Like Lindsey Vonn, this US free skier just competed with torn ACL
U.S. skiers Lindsey Vonn and Rell Harwood both competed in the 2026 Winter Olympics with a torn ACL.
Harwood, making her Olympic debut, tore her ACL in December but still competed in the big air qualifying event.
Despite not advancing to the final, Harwood was proud to have landed some of her most difficult tricks.
Harwood plans to have surgery on her knee after attending the closing ceremony and supporting her teammates.
LIVIGNO, Italy – Nobody would confuse the resumes of United States skiers Lindsey Vonn and Rell Harwood.
Vonn, 41, has three Olympic medals and was one of Team USA’s most recognizable faces. Harwood, 24, was making her Olympic debut. But they did have one thing in common at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.
They both competed with a torn ACL.
Vonn suffered her injury about a week before attempting to race at the Olympics, which ended in disaster – although not related to her ruptured ACL – when she crashed in the women’s downhill event Feb. 8.
Harwood tore her ACL in December and, despite qualifying for the Games in both slopestyle and big air, decided to save herself for Saturday night’s big air qualifying at Livigno Snow Park. She, along with three of her teammates, did not advance to the 12-person final.
The result didn’t diminish the positive feelings she held toward this past week.
“It’s been a lot of ups and downs,” Harwood said. “Like, ‘Will I even make it here?’ So to just go in and put down some of my hardest tricks feels really amazing.”
The Park City, Utah, native had plenty of family in town for the Games. Some friends, too. Her boyfriend Konnor Ralph is a member of the men’s free ski team on the slopestyle/big air team. She plans on watching him and his teammates during their qualifier Sunday and will eventually make her way down to Milan to participate in the closing ceremony.
Then it’s off to the operating table.
But not without first making more life-changing memories, like when she and her teammates fashioned a Ralph Lauren swag-bag piece – that was likely meant to be a blanket – into a skirt and wore it to dinner. She grew up with teammate Marin Hamill; they’ve known each other for 15 years. Making it to the Olympics together was special – same deal with being here alongside Ralph.
“Having so much family and friends around is amazing,” said Harwood, who added: “Maybe no more skirt, unless I’m feeling crazy.”
Hamill agreed that it was “super special” for both of them to make the Olympics together. She was happy Harwood could ski and land two of her jumps.
“Which is insane,” Hamill said. “I couldn’t do that.”
Even if Harwood had to wipe away tears after falling on her first jump, she still impressed herself over the past two months.
“It’s really hard. I think that as women, our bodies hold us back from doing the things we want to do,” Harwood said. “I didn’t make it to the last Olympics because of a knee injury. I wanted to prove that no matter what’s going on with me I’m still going to try and give it my all. I think that’s what Lindsey was doing too. All you can do is try and see what happens. That’s all I did.”
Muscle strength that Harwood has naturally built around the injured knee helps, she said, especially since she recently went through another knee rehab. Other people she knows have been able to ski with similar injuries.
“I think we’re just pushing it and discovering what humans can do,” Harwood said, “and maybe you don’t need an ACL.”
That doesn’t mean Harwood considers herself one of those people who can live without one.
“That’s why I’m going to get it fixed,” she said.