Overall World Cup skiing champion Federica Brignone was still smiling Friday despite the very real possibility that her Olympic dream could be over.
Barely 24 hours after breaking multiple bones in her left leg during a giant slalom crash, Brignone posted a photo from the hospital of her grinning and holding up two fingers in a victory sign.
Brignone underwent an operation at La Madonnina clinic in Milan on Thursday night after a crash at the Italian championships earlier in the day.
Surgeons found that she had also torn her ACL in a further setback for the 34-year-old Italian’s hopes of competing at a home Olympics in 10 months. She was expected to be one of her country’s stars of the Milan-Cortina Games.
“As usual, I do things big or I don’t do them!” Brignone wrote in an Instagram post. “This time I did it huge (negatively).
Brignone also thanked those who had treated her on the slope, as well as the surgeons and other medical staff, and her friends for “keeping me company and making me laugh.”
The Italian Winter Sports Federation described the surgery as a “complete success,” but said the “rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament was also highlighted” and would be evaluated in the coming weeks.
The Italian star was diagnosed with multiple fractures in her tibial plateau and fibula bone, the federation said.
Surgeons also made a “ligament repair of the medial compartment of the knee,” the federation’s statement said late Thursday.
The operation was led by federation medical chief Andrea Panzeri.
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 before being transferred to Milan.
Before the surgery, Panzeri had estimated that Brignone would be out for “months.”
“In the happiest moment of my career that was really the last thing I needed,” Italian news agency ANSA quoted Brignone as saying earlier Friday. “There was still a month of work ahead of me and I couldn’t wait to do it.
“Instead I will have to face a new challenge into which I will put my all, as always.”
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 Alpine skiing at the Milan-Cortina Olympics next February — her first career victory at the venue.
“I am sure she will be back on the slopes, in a month – and I’m talking from experience – she will already feel better,” said Italian former skier Deborah Compagnoni, who won two of her three Olympic gold medals after a serious injury.
“She has grit and character, she’s a tiger, she knows how to fight, she will give her all to return and manage this period as best as possible. I had some wonderful races after my injuries, and I wish that for her too.”
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