Winter Olympics 2026: Lindsey Vonn breaks her leg, Breezy Johnson breaks her gold medal - quick hits from day two

US great Lindsey Vonn breaks her leg, and her compatriot breaks her gold medal as Tess Coady sneaks through to the final after a nervous wait on the bubble.

Here are the quick hits from the Winter Olympics.

1. Vonn airlifted out

US skiing superstar Lindsey Vonn was already making headlines this Olympic Games for deciding to compete despite having a completely torn ACL.

All eyes were on the 41-year-old as she went to make her run in the women's downhill racing, 24 years after her debut in 2002.

But just 12 seconds in, she had an awful crash.

It was a sight no-one wanted to see, and an eerie silence took hold of Cortina d'Ampezzo. She lay on the track for about 10 minutes while being seen by medics until a helicopter came to take her away.

An official statement from Team USA said Vonn was "in stable condition and in good hands with a team of American and Italian physicians", undergoing surgery to stabilise a broken left leg.

2. 'Tom Daley, I broke my medal for you'

There is one thing, more than anything else, you would hope not to do to your gleaming, newly acquired gold medal.

And that one thing is break it.

Unfortunately for Breezy Johnson, who topped the podium in the women's downhill skiing on day two, that's exactly what she did.

Johnson is an avid knitter, and when a BBC reporter told her she would receive a message from British diving superstar and fellow knitter Tom Daley, she could hardly contain her excitement.

Bouncing up and down, the medal snapped from its lanyard and fell to the floor.

Johnson later put out a call on Instagram to any makers on Etsy for a custom carrying case, seeing as she could no longer wear it around her neck.

3. Coady's nervous wait

Australian Tess Coady was always in a tricky spot in the women's snowboard big air qualification.

The 2022 slopestyle bronze medallist was the first rider, meaning she had to watch 28 other women try to better her score, with only the top 12 going through to the final.

Only the top two scores from the three qualifying runs counted, and Coady added a 75 with her switch backside 900 to a strong 78.50 from her first run, leaving her with a solid but surmountable total of 153.50, and a long wait ahead of her.

By the time China's Zhang Xiaonan pipped her by a point, Coady was officially bumped down to 12th spot and sitting on the bubble with 11 riders still to come.

Thankfully for the 25-year-old, it was the last time her score was bettered, as she managed to progress to the Olympic final for the second straight time, accompanying compatriot Meila Stalker.

The cameras found a gleeful Coady in the holding pen, and she wiped a bit of faux sweat off her brow as attention turned to the final on Tuesday at 5:30am AEDT.

4. Karl goes topless

It was a celebration to match the most epic of parallel giant slalom victories.

Trailing for much of the men's final, 40-year-old Benjamin Karl stormed home to defend his gold medal from Beijing and set in motion one of the Winter Olympics' more memorable celebration sequences.

The roaring veteran wasted no time in removing his top, flexing his muscles and holding the pose with authority.

It was quite the performance, even before taking into account the sub-zero Italian temperatures he had exposed himself to.

And he wasn't done there.

The now two-time Olympic champion capped off the display by flinging himself towards the ground, where he lay motionless and face down in the snow.

5. How to watch the Super Bowl in Italy

Whether it be European football, cricket in India or the Winter Olympics, Australian sport fans are well-accustomed to an interrupted sleep schedule.

But for American bobsleigh athletes Joshua Williamson and Boone Niederhofer, it seems to be something of a novel idea.

Speaking at the Olympic village in Cortina, the pair explained how they planned to watch this morning's Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks, beginning at 12:30am in Italy.

"My plan is to wake up and watch maybe the second half or the fourth quarter to make sure I'm still doing my job here," Williamson said.

"I'll probably just watch it on my phone in bed, throw it on and make sure I can catch some of it."

Niederhofer, who played college football for Texas A&M before becoming an Olympian, said he would be taking a similarly pragmatic approach.

"We were talking about it. I think we're going to stay up and watch kick-off and then take a two-hour nap, wake up and watch the fourth quarter," he said.

"I'm okay forfeiting the half-time show."

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