Competing on a torn ACL is possible. Just ask Cindy Nelson
Rocky Mountain PBS interviewed Cindy Nelson for an upcoming episode of "Colorado Experience" about Coloradans voting to turn down hosting the Winter Olympics. "Colorado Experience: The Olympics That Never Was" airs Thursday, March 26 at 7 p.m. on Rocky Mountain PBS and will be available to stream on RMPBS+.
VAIL, Colo. — Fueled by a homemade latte, former Olympic skier Cindy Nelson straps on her teal boots and zips up her fuchsia, puffy jacket for a typical morning on the mountain.
At 70 years old, skiing in Vail is part of Nelson’s everyday life in the winter.
“I love the feeling of gliding on top of the snow with your skis, it's very peaceful,” said Nelson. “Now, long after my ski racing days, I still go up to ski for the pure joy of being up on the mountains and beautiful vistas we have.”
Nelson, a member of the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame, is one of the most accomplished athletes in her sport. This year marks 50 years since she won an Olympic bronze medal in downhill, and her own story of injury and triumph is even more prescient as American skier Lindsey Vonn plans to ski on a torn ACL in this year’s games.
“We have a commonness that the speed events were our favorites, were our strongest events, and she's just a super, super good competitor,” Nelson said about Vonn. “I think this comeback has done so much for her, for all of U.S. ski racers, ex-ski racers, for women in sports and, just for athletes to know that age is only a number.”
Vonn, 41, announced Feb. 3 that she tore her ACL in her left knee just days before the start of the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics. However, she said after extensive tests and consultations with doctors, she decided to still compete.
“I know what my chances in these Olympics were before this crash, and even though my chances aren’t the same now, there is still a chance,” Vonn said in a social media post. “And as long as I have a chance, I will not lose hope. I will not give up! It’s not over yet!”
Before her crash on Jan. 30 at a race in Switzerland, Vonn — who replaced her right knee in 2024 — had been on the podium in seven of eight speed races and led the world in downhill season standings.
Her comeback is possible, in part, thanks to the advanced medical staff that is now a part of Team USA and Vonn’s team — a concept that really got started in the 1970s when Nelson was competing.
“Everything about these snow sports can put you in a very dangerous position because you're traveling at high speeds, making sharp turns and all kinds of things,” said Nelson.
In December of 1983, Nelson — by then already an Olympic medalist — crashed and tore her ACL, MCL, and LCL, the three major ligaments in the knee, just two months before the Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.
After the crash, Nelson flew from Switzerland directly to Lake Tahoe where Dr. Richard Steadman lived. He was the team’s doctor and a close friend of Nelson. With the limited availability of MRI scans at the time, Steadman did a surgical scope of Nelson’s knee to assess the damage and chances of her competing in the fast-approaching Winter Olympics.
“When I woke up from surgery, I said, ‘What is it doc?’ He says, ‘You're going to the Olympics.’”
Steadman had determined that with six hours of strength training and conditioning every day and a specialized knee brace, Nelson could compete in a matter of weeks. Vonn is relying on similar resilience in order to compete this year.
Nelson was all about speed, often described by sports reporters at the time as blasting out of the starting gates.
“She was a great athlete. And when I say great athlete, I think at that level, if she picked up another sport as a youngster, she would have been equally successful because she had that intrinsic athletic ability,” said John McMurtry, a former Team USA ski coach.
Nelson grew up in the small town of Lutsen, Minnesota. It has less than 300 residents according to a 2023 count. The town sits on the edge of Lake Superior. Nelson’s great-grandfather homesteaded the area in 1886. Her family then built a resort in the area, capitalizing on the availability of summer activities. Later, Nelson’s father created the ski area after returning from fighting in World War II in which he served as part of the 10th Mountain Division. Members of the 10th Mountain Division, who trained at Camp Hale in Colorado, learned to ski in order to traverse the Alps and are credited with popularizing skiing in the U.S. when they returned from combat.
Nelson and her sisters spent their childhoods outside, trying every type of athletic activity. They skied as soon as they could walk. Nelson made five Junior Olympic teams starting in 1967 and then made the U.S. Ski Team in 1971 as a 16-year-old, and — as pointed out in several newspaper articles — a blonde, young woman.
“In the 70s being a female athlete was unusual. As a woman or young lady [that] is working out that hard, jogging or out cycling… I would get a little eerie feeling like I was being watched, like, almost a feeling of not [being] safe,” said Nelson.
Just before the 1972 Olympics, she dislocated her hip and was unable to compete in the games. But that was just a minor speedbump in what would become an illustrious career.
In 1974, at the Alpine Ski World Cup in Grindelwald, Switzerland Nelson became the first American to win a world cup in downhill skiing — a major accomplishment for Nelson and a groundbreaking moment for the U.S. Ski Team.
“Being a World Cup winner really showed the way for her teammates that, ‘yes, you can do this.’ And so she was a real leader and a positive, wonderful role model for the rest of the team,” said McMurtry.
Nelson went on to compete in the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria where she took home a bronze medal in downhill skiing. It was an achievement made even more impressive by the fact that during the training sessions, she missed a gate in a particularly tricky section of the course every single time.
“I remember coming out of the starting gate and just letting her rip. And I went through that section and I was like, ‘Well, I made it.’” said Nelson. “You go into almost like a remote control, and just do your thing.”
After surviving the last bumpy stretch of the run, Nelson said she looked up at the scoreboard and saw her name pop into the number three spot. But winning her first Olympic medal wasn’t the most meaningful part of her experience that year. In the 1976 Games, she was also named as flag-bearer in the opening ceremony for the Americans.
“Physically I could feel the excitement. This like a wind of energy came right up and jumped into our faces and I could feel the flag waving. My heart was racing faster, and I was more nervous than I was in the downhill start. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience,” said Nelson.
After 1976, Nelson went on to compete in two more Olympic Games. In 1980, the Winter Olympics at Lake Placid was simultaneous with the World Cup Championships, where she won silver medal in Women’s Combined. At the time, that was not an Olympic event.
In 1983, Nelson became the first skier to win a World Cup Super Giant Slalom — a new event at the time — in Verbier, Switzerland. She hurt her knee in December of that year. After weeks of intense training, Nelson raced in the women’s Giant Slalom in the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics, and finished 18th.
“It wasn't a good result for me, but I was racing in my last Olympic Games, and I was very proud — our team did great. We won gold and silver actually,” said Nelson.
Leading up to the 1984 Olympics, the U.S. women’s alpine ski team won the Nations Cup in 1982. This meant Nelson, along with her female teammates, garnered more World Cup points than any other country’s team. Nelson not only contributed with her individual performances, but also by being a mentor for young ski team members.
“The best coaching in the world is not the coaches, it's the leaders on that team. We all stand on the shoulders of giants” said McMurtry. “Up until this time now, it was arguably the most successful period in U.S. skiing.”
Following her retirement from competitive skiing in 1985, Nelson stayed in the skiing industry. She worked as the director of skiing for Vail and Beaver Creek resorts from 1985 to 1992.
Nelson said she helped transform Vail and Beaver Creek to be more friendly to the average skier and was instrumental in bringing the FIS World Ski Championships to Vail in 1989 for the first time.
“She was one of the first women in that type of management role at a major resort in the United States, Colorado for sure,” said Jen Mason, executive director of the Colorado Snowsports Museum in Vail.
“She's a natural born leader. Like, when you're around her and you just have this feeling that you're around someone that's done great things, and she has especially for women,” she said.
In 2002, Colorado Ski Hall of Fame inducted Nelson as its newest member. That same year, Nelson participated in the tradition of carrying the Olympic torch, a process that involved skiing down the mountain in Vail — in the dark.
“The side of Pepi's Face was lit by ski instructors holding lights for me, otherwise it was dark out,” said Nelson. “And it was really steep. I hadn't made so many short turns since my ski racing days, but [it was] quite a thrill.”
As Nelson continues her active and athletic lifestyle, she is eager to watch Team USA in the upcoming Milan Cortina Games. She has high expectations for the athletes this year, but knows the Olympics is not always about winning gold.
“You're always an Olympian. Now, as I look back, I see the true magnitude of that,” said Nelson. “And very, very few people in the world have that chance to have that opportunity, get that honor.”
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