American skier Lindsey Vonn says she has “no regrets” after a crash in the women’s downhill competition at the Winter Olympics resulted in a “complex” broken leg which will require multiple surgeries.

The 41-year-old was already racing with ruptured ligaments in her left knee when she struck a gate 13 seconds into Sunday’s run in Cortina.

Thrown off balance, Vonn was left screaming in pain after falling and was treated on the slope for a lengthy period before being airlifted to hospital in Treviso.

The 2010 Olympic downhill champion, competing at a fifth and final Games, later had surgery on a fractured tibia.

“Yesterday my Olympic dream did not finish the way I dreamt it would,” she said in a post on Instagram on Monday.

“It wasn’t a story book ending or a fairytale, it was just life. I dared to dream and had worked so hard to achieve it.

“While yesterday did not end the way I had hoped, and despite the intense physical pain it caused, I have no regrets.

“Standing in the starting gate yesterday was an incredible feeling that I will never forget. Knowing I stood there having a chance to win was a victory in and of itself.”