In the ski jumping winter of 2020/21, Eirin Kvandal was considered a contender for World Championship medals when a terrible fall in February 2021 changed everything. The almost 21-year-old Norwegian has now celebrated her World Cup comeback in Lillehammer.
She had no tension in her thighs – and no chance to prepare for landing. “I can’t remember much more after that,” said Norway’s ski jumping talent Eirin Kvandal almost 22 months after her horror fall in Hinzenbach in an interview with Norway’s public broadcaster “NRK.no“.
Barely three weeks after her first World Cup win of her career, Kvandal found herself in the hospital. The pain only came there – almost with the diagnosis. The cruciate ligament was torn, and the meniscus and several ligaments in the right knee were damaged.
“I remember when the doctor said what was going on. It was a long list. It never seemed to end,” recalls the almost 21-year-old.
The relief at Kvandal was all the greater after their World Cup return in Lillehammer on Saturday. With 223.7 points, the young Norwegian, who will be celebrating her 22nd birthday on December 12, made a remarkable comeback in the individual competition in tenth place. With a jump of 92 meters, Kvandal easily qualified for the final where she jumped 89.5 meters.
Ski jumping talent on her comeback: “I’m doing it for myself”
Because the way back was long and difficult. In the course of the recovery process, an overload of the patella tendon caused Kvandal to struggle for three months.
The almost two-year forced break also gave Norway’s ski jumping hope mental problems. “When you have a short circuit like I had in Austria, you just lose confidence. And I haven’t had the opportunity to refute that for a year and a half. So the feeling grows and grows,” reported Kvandal before her World Cup return.
Kvandal summed up her key learning before the comeback: “I’m doing this for myself. I’m going to try to enjoy myself, stay calm and do what I come here to do.”
Her coach Henning Stensrud, meanwhile, has plenty of praise for Kvandal. There were training sessions where tears flowed, he reported. Nevertheless, she carried out the entire program with 100 percent commitment and focus: “No matter how hard it was and how mentally devastated she was: she got up in the morning and did a solid job.”