Lindsey Vonn is home — or at least on home soil.

After a week in an Italian hospital and four surgeries on her fractured left leg, the American Alpine skiing star and St. Paul native posted on social media Monday night that she has made it back across the Atlantic.

“Haven’t stood on my feet in over a week…been immobile in a hospital bed since my race,” she wrote in a post on X. “And although I’m not yet able to stand, being back on home soil feels amazing. Huge thank you to everyone in Italy for taking care of me.”

The post came a little more than a day after Vonn posted a reel of her friends and family getting her cleaned up for her re-entry into civilization. They washed her hair and massaged her cheeks and her good right leg and essentially made her look like Lindsey Vonn again, or something like that.

And that came a little more than 24 hours after Vonn reported that her fourth surgery of the week went well enough to get her approved to head back home. She has said her road to recovery is long — and one she has travelled many times during her career.

Vonn, 41, fell 13 seconds into her downhill run on Feb. 8 at the Winter Olympics, a race she attempted despite rupturing her left anterior cruciate ligament nine days before. She cut a turn too tight, hooked a gate in midair, and never had a chance of landing safely after that. Vonn had come out of retirement in 2024 to attempt a comeback after having a successful partial right knee replacement surgery.

That comeback was a smashing success. Vonn once again became the world’s dominant downhill skier. But what always made Vonn great, that willingness to take risks and ski right on the edge of recklessness — and sometimes over it — also made her prone to crashing and serious injuries.

That’s what unfolded in the downhill race in what was supposed to be the culmination of her comeback.

In the week since the crash, Vonn has become a symbol of bravery and an inspiration — and also a lightning rod for criticism from people who think she behaved recklessly by trying to ski through a serious injury.

She has said she does not want anyone’s empathy or pity. That is not what her story is about, she insisted.

“I hope instead it gives you strength to keep fighting, because that is what I am doing and that is what I will continue to do. Always,” she wrote last week, claiming that she was healthier in the downhill starting hut than she had been at many other moments in her career.

Her words in her first post the day after the crash will likely live in a lot of fans’ memories for a long time.

“I dreamt. I tried. I jumped,” she wrote.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military said Tuesday that it carried out strikes on three boats accused of smuggling drugs in Latin American waters, killing 11 people in one of the deadliest days of the Trump administration’s monthslong campaign.

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The series of strikes conducted Monday brought the death toll to at least 145 people since the administration began targeting those it calls “narcoterrorists” in small vessels since early September.

Like most of the military’s statements on the 42 known strikes, U.S. Southern Command said it targeted alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes. It said two vessels carrying four people each were struck in the eastern Pacific Ocean, while a third boat with three people was hit in the Caribbean Sea. The military did not provide evidence that the vessels were ferrying drugs but posted videos that showed boats being destroyed.

President Donald Trump has said the U.S. is in “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs. But his administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing “narcoterrorists.”

There was no snow falling a year ago in downtown St. Paul on the afternoon of Feb. 21, yet Warroad goalie Payton Rolli found herself being pelted on the ice regardless.

Her Warriors were facing Orono in the semifinals of the Class A state tournament. The Spartans’ strategy for dethroning the three-time defending state champs from the west shore of Lake of the Woods was a simple one: Shoot the puck.

Over the course of three periods and three overtimes, Orono sent 62 pucks at Rolli, including 15 in the second overtime. She stopped 61 of them in what was, eventually, a 2-1 win. For Rolli, the workload was daunting.

“It just kept going. It was such a long game, and it didn’t seem like it was going to end soon at all,” Rolli said this week. “They scored the first goal, it took us a period to get another goal back, and then we were just back and forth throughout the whole game. It was a really good game, but I think all of us were really tired by the end.”

Rolli’s poise and reflexes in the marathon win caught the eye of more than one college scout in attendance that day. Her coach said any scout that didn’t make a few notes about Rolli after that show should maybe explore other employment.

“She was good,” said David Marvin, who has coached Warroad to five state titles, and will be seeking a fourth in the past five years this week in the program’s 11th straight trip to St. Paul. “In that game she stopped 61 out of 62, so Ray Charles would’ve noticed her. She caught everybody’s eye.”

Warroad opens the 2026 tournament with an 11 a.m. quarterfinal Wednesday versus Luverne at Grand Casino Arena.

Born in Wyoming, Rolli began playing goalie as a nine-year-old in Minot, N.D., with her father working in the oil business. The family moved to Warroad three years ago and Rolli backstopped the Warriors’ 2024 state title. She had already made recruiting visits to Maine and several schools in Boston, but opted to stay in-state and go to college in the place where her parents met after Minnesota Gophers coach Brad Frost made an offer.

“Her numbers are really, really good. We had watched her off and on, but certainly the state tournament last year was where she really kind of peaked our interest,” Frost said. “She is appropriately aggressive. She anticipates well. She’s not huge, but she’s not small, so she’s got good enough size. I think the biggest thing we’re looking forward to is to be playing at a higher level and being coached to see where she can get to.”

She will be the first Gopher from Warroad since 2005 Ms. Hockey winner Gigi Marvin.

Rolli arrives in St. Paul with a 1.26 goals against average and a .934 saves percentage after going 21-5-1 this season. She has 10 shutouts, including blanking Crookston and East Grand Forks in Warroad’s pair of Section 8A playoff wins, and is one of five finalists for the Jori Jones Award, which goes to the state’s top prep goalie.

On-ice hiccups have been rare for the Warriors this season, who last lost on Jan. 22 at Edina in a game that was scheduled for the Hockey Day Minnesota rink in Hastings, but was moved inside at the last minute due to frigid temperatures. Marvin said perhaps Rolli’s biggest asset is an ability to reset her mind and body quickly when things don’t go according to plan.

“Sometimes we score and sometimes we don’t, so it’s pretty good to get big saves until we can get something on the board,” Marvin said. “One thing I’ve always liked about Payton is that if something does beat her, she’s able to turn the page. She focuses and goes from there. So I feel pretty good about going to St. Paul this week with number one in our net.”

Wednesday’s Class A quarterfinals in St. Paul

No. 1 Warroad (21-5-1) vs. No. 8 Luverne (19-9), 11 a.m.

No. 4 Dodge County (20-6-1) vs. No. 5 Proctor/Hermantown (18-6-2), 1 p.m.

No. 2 Breck (25-1-1) vs. Saint Cloud (18-9), 6 p.m.

No. 3 Blake (21-6) vs. No. 6 Mankato East (24-2-1), 8 p.m.

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By SARA CLINE

NEW ORLEANS, La. (AP) — As people head back to work Tuesday after the long holiday weekend, beads will be flying, crawfish boiling and parades rolling in New Orleans as the city celebrates Mardi Gras.

Mardi Gras, also known as Fat Tuesday, marks the climax and end of the weekslong Carnival season and a final chance for indulgence, feasting and revelry before the Christian Lent period of sacrifice and reflection. The joyous goodbye to Carnival always falls the day before Ash Wednesday.

Among the final parades in Louisiana’s most populous city, which is world-famous for its Mardi Gras bash, is one hosted by the Zulu Social Aide & Pleasure Club.

Marchers and float riders in the Zulu parade wear African-inspired garb and toss “throws” — trinkets that include plastic beads, candy, doubloons, stuffed animals, cups and toys. This parade’s signature “throw” is hand-decorated coconuts, coveted items that many revelers hope for.

Later in the day Rex, the King of Carnival parade will roll along St. Charles Avenue, lined by paradegoers and stately oak trees covered in Spanish moss and beads.

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Carnival events are popular for their spectacular and enormous floats, and also the intricately crafted outfits worn, such as Black masking Indians, whose beaded and bejeweled costumes are topped with feathered headdresses, or paradegoers walking the French Quarter in homemade costumes that capture the unique spirit of the Big Easy.

The good times will roll not just in New Orleans but all across the state, from exclusive balls to the Cajun French tradition of the Courir de Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday Run — a rural event in Central Louisiana featuring costumed participants performing, begging for ingredients and chasing after live chickens to be cooked in a communal gumbo.

Parades are also held in other Gulf Coast cities such as Mobile, Alabama, and Pensacola, Florida, and there are other world-renowned celebrations in Brazil and Europe.