Transported away on a stretcher
After a serious Olympic fall: Update on the bobsleigh pilot
02/24/2026 – 10:01 p.mReading time: 1 min.
At the Olympic Games, Jakob Mandlbauer experienced a serious fall in the four-man bobsleigh. The Austrian was now able to leave the hospital.
Three days after his serious fall during the Olympic four-man bobsleigh race, Austrian pilot Jakob Mandlbauer was released from hospital in Salzburg. As the Austrian Olympic Committee announced, the 27-year-old was first taken to the hospital in Cortina and then transferred from Treviso to Salzburg by air ambulance on Sunday. There he was checked again holistically and received further medical care.
“The pain is still there, but it’s getting better every day. I’m glad I’m home now,” said Mandlbauer, according to the statement. He wants to start physiotherapy next week. “We are optimistic that with physiotherapy we will get everything back to normal. But I am aware that this won’t happen overnight,” said the bobsleigh pilot.
Mandlbauer had meanwhile been treated at the Ca’ Foncello Hospital in Treviso. Ski star Lindsey Vonn was also treated at the clinic and underwent multiple operations after a serious fall in the Olympic downhill.
Mandlbauer crashed in the second run after a driving error in turn nine. “The mistake annoys me even more now because it was the same thing twice,” he explained. His pushers were able to leave the ice track in the Cortina Sliding Center independently. The pilot had to be rescued with a stretcher. Mandlbauer had complained of neck pain.
