Lindsey Vonn spent her summer split between rehab and recovery from her 2026 Winter Olympics injuries and a series of getaways that doubled as both healing time and a debut of her new relationship with French alpine skier Matthieu Bailet.

The Olympic skiing legend shared an 18-photo Instagram carousel Wednesday captioned “About that time for a summer recap… pt 1,” documenting months of travel following her crash during the women’s downhill event at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. Vonn suffered a complex tibia fracture and compartment syndrome in her left leg, on top of an ACL tear sustained just a week before the race, and was airlifted to a hospital at the time.

The happy couple was seen embracing on a luxury yacht cruise in the Mediterranean in one shot.

The recap opened with Vonn leaping into a pool with what appeared to be full mobility in her surgically repaired leg, a visual marker of how far her recovery has come. The photos that followed traced a series of water-centered stops: a swimming pool overlooking the sea, ocean shots with the couple standing on rocks along the coastline, and a final image of the pair relaxing together over the water at what multiple outlets described as a tropical destination, though the exact location was not disclosed.

The travel documented in the post follows a pattern Vonn has kept up throughout her recovery, often pairing physical therapy milestones with getaways. She’s spoken publicly about the long road still ahead — telling TNT Sports at the US Open in August that she still needs an additional surgery on her ACL, which she hopes to schedule for November, followed by roughly nine more months of recovery. In the meantime, she’s continued to balance training with travel, previously sharing a separate post captioned “Relax. Explore. Expand. Happy,” which included glimpses of poolside downtime, ice therapy for her knee, and beach stops at an undisclosed getaway spot.

Her recovery journey has also included a return to the public eye at major events. Vonn appeared at the Met Gala earlier this year without crutches for the first time since her injury, an appearance that came shortly after she and Bailet were spotted together in New York City’s Soho neighborhood, where the two had lunch and rode the subway together — an outing that first sparked dating rumors in May, months before this summer’s travels made the relationship public.

Bailet, who is from Nice, France, has competed on the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup circuit since making his debut in 2016 and raced at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, giving the couple a shared understanding of the demands of international ski competition as Vonn continues working her way back to full health.

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Article by Erik Meers

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