(Reuters) -Italy’s Olympic medal hopeful Federica Brignone, fresh from claiming the overall World Cup skiing crown, suffered multiple leg fractures and ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament, crashing in the giant slalom at the Italian Championships on Thursday.
The 34-year-old, one of Italy’s strongest medal contenders in the blue-riband sport of Alpine skiing for next year’s home Olympics, saw her triumphant season come to a brutal halt on the slopes of Val di Fassa when her legs became entangled at a gate, sending her tumbling out of control.
Brignone was airlifted to a hospital in Trento where the damage was revealed to be severe.
The Italian Winter Sports Federation said she had a “multi-fragmentary compound fracture of the tibial plateau and the head of the fibula in her left leg” and would be transferred to Milan for further tests and surgical consultation.
During the operation, which the federation said was successful, it was discovered that Brignone had also ruptured her ACL, which will be evaluated in the coming weeks, and she will begin her rehabilitation process in the next few days.
Andrea Panzeri, the president of the medical staff of Italy’s winter sports federation, told reporters in Milan before Brignone underwent surgery that she would be sidelined for months.
The accident casts a shadow over her preparations for the Milan-Cortina Olympics in February 2026, where she was expected to lead Italy’s charge for gold in one of the Games’ marquee events.
The crash came during a national competition after Brignone had already wrapped up her World Cup campaign in spectacular fashion.
The veteran skier had capped her international season by securing the overall World Cup title, adding the giant slalom and downhill globes to her impressive collection of trophies.
Brignone’s injury is particularly bitter timing after her February triumph at the World Championships, where she claimed giant slalom gold in a performance that heightened expectations for her Olympic prospects on home snow next year.
(Reporting by Tommy Lund in Gdansk, Alvise Armellini, Elvira Pollina and Trevor Stynes; Editing by Ken Ferris and Christian Radnedge)
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