Shock for Italy’s ski alpine superstar Federica Brignone. The overall World Cup winner was seriously injured in the Italian championships in the event of a fall – the diagnosis is a violent blow with a view to the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Federica Brignone suffered serious injuries in the fall in the giant slalom of the Italian championships in Val di Fassa.
The 34-year-old fell in the second round of the goal and not only contracted a “multi-fragment fracture of the shin leg head and the fabric’s head of the left leg”, but also a cruciate ligament tear. This was announced by the Italian Ski Association after an examination in the hospital in Milan.
The cruciate ligament injury will be taken into account in the next few weeks and decide how to treat it. Brignones rehab is scheduled to begin in the next few days.
Brignone will only be able to think of skiing for a long time. Much bad news ten months before the Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo.
After her fall, Brignone was initially flown to a hospital in Trento, where she underwent computer tomography. The medical department then moved to Milan for the operation. The intervention took several hours and was optimal, it said on the part of the association.
How long Brignone fails is unclear. Media already speculates that it could take ten months for the exceptional athlete to be in top shape again. A race over time, because then Olympics begin.
Ski Alpin: Federica Brignone dominated the season
Brignone actually has a dream season, dominated the World Cup winter with a total of ten wins and, in addition to the large crystal ball of the overall World Cup winner, also won the discipline ratings in the departure and in the giant slalom.
At the Alpine World Ski Championship in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Brignone won gold in the giant slalom and silver in the Super-G. All the more bitter is the fall and the serious injury to the comparatively secondary national title fights.
The Italian has started in the World Cup since 2007, won 37 World Cup races in her career, twice the overall ranking and twice World Cup gold. At the Olympics, she has achieved bronze twice and once silver. In Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, she wants to gild her career – a goal that should now be very difficult to reach.