Overall ski champion Brignone breaks leg in crash with home Olympics approaching

It was meant to be a celebratory final week of competition in the best season of her career.

The celebrations ended abruptly for freshly crowned overall World Cup skiing champion Federica Brignone when she broke multiple bones in her left leg during a giant slalom crash at the Italian championships on Thursday — 10 months before a home Olympics.

Brignone was set to undergo surgery and will be out for “months,” Italian Winter Sports Federation medical chief Andrea Panzeri said.

Brignone was the race leader at the Lusia ski area in Val di Fassa but in her second run she crashed through a gate and lost control, prompting her to tumble and crash through the next gate, too. She was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Trento.

The Italian star was diagnosed with multiple fractures in her tibial plateau and fibula bone, the federation said. She was then transferred to a hospital in Milan where Panzeri was to operate on Brignone immediately.

“It’s a serious fracture. But she’s strong and fortunately healthy as she had never had any big injuries before today,” Panzeri said. “It’s tough to make estimates now. I’ll tell you more afterward. Don’t ask me about the Olympics or recovery times yet. We need to see how we can reduce the fracture and then we’ll be able to be more precise later (today) or tomorrow morning.”

Brignone, who won the giant slalom at the world championships in February, also won 10 World Cup races across three different disciplines (five giant slaloms, three super-Gs and two downhills) this season. At 34, she became the oldest woman to win a World Cup race.

One of those World Cup wins came in a super-G on the Olympia delle Tofane course in Cortina that will host women’s skiing at the Milan-Cortina Olympics next February — her first career victory at the venue.

“She’s certainly not happy. She had an exceptional season and won everything she should have won. She certainly could have done without this,” Panzeri said. “But the great champions always know how to bounce back.”

Brignone was expected to be one of the home stars of the Milan-Cortina Games. But the Italian faces a race just to recover in time.

“It won’t be a quick recovery,” said Panzeri, who has also operated on Brignone’s teammate Sofia Goggia multiple times. “We’re talking about months.”

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AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing