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Sochi Winter Olympic 2014
- Thread starter singveld
- Start date
Russian Olympic ski cross racer Maria Komissarova breaks spine
KRASNAYA POLYANA, RUSSIA—Olympic ski cross racer Maria Komissarova of Russia underwent a 6 ½-hour operation on her fractured spine following a training accident Saturday.
Russian freestyle ski federation spokesperson Mikhail Verzeba said Komissarova fractured the 12th dorsal vertebrae in her lower-middle back and was taken to hospital near Rosa Khutor Extreme Park for emergency surgery.
“The operation is over . . . it’s been successful,” Verzeba said.
The International Olympic Committee was monitoring the situation. President Thomas Bach said, “Our thoughts are with the athlete and we wish her a full and speedy recovery.”
The national freestyle ski federation issued a statement later saying a team of specialists participated in the surgery to insert a metal implant in Komissarova’s spine. The federation said Komissarova was conscious, and described her condition as “grave” but stable, adding that it was likely she’d need further surgery within weeks.
The 23-year-old Komissarova was practising for next Friday’s contest on a sunny morning on the 1,200-metre course, which has nine banked turns and 25 jumps. In the main competition, six skiers race against each other, with the top three advancing through heats until the final.
Normally during practice runs, skiers are on the course themselves, or travelling down the mountain in loosely packed bunches.
“The course is difficult. It’s of the highest possible level of complexity, there is nothing simple about it,” Verzeba said. “However, this all is irrelevant now, she got injured, and the rest does not matter.”
Jenny Wiedeke, spokesperson for the International Ski Federation, said the accident occurred on a series of jumps near the top of the course and that Komissarova fell while exiting the third jump. She was taken by sled to the medical services tent, and from there to hospital. Team doctors decided to do the surgery immediately instead of transporting Komissarova down to Sochi.
Komissarova is ranked 33rd in the World Cup standings and recovered from a leg injury last year to qualify for the Olympics. Her best World Cup finish was a second-place at a race in Switzerland in 2012.
At the same event, Canadian ski cross racer Nik Zoricic suffered fatal head injuries in a crash near the final jump of a heat in the men’s race.
“Nik’s death wasn’t anything that happened with contact,” American racer John Teller said. “But we all understand how dangerous it is.”
Teller said the biggest concern for any ski cross racer comes during the racing part, not training or qualifications, which are individual runs down the mountain. He said most of the competitors had been complimentary of the course setup for the Sochi Games but labelled it a “bigger course.”
“It’s like a North American style course,” he said. “We race ski cross all year long in Europe. They tend to be smaller courses. I feel like this course is more of an X Games style of course.”
Several athletes have been injured during the Games, including a Russian ski jumper who broke his ribs after landing awkwardly in a training accident, and an ice worker at the sliding venue broke both legs when he was hit by a sled before a practice run on Thursday.
KRASNAYA POLYANA, RUSSIA—Olympic ski cross racer Maria Komissarova of Russia underwent a 6 ½-hour operation on her fractured spine following a training accident Saturday.
Russian freestyle ski federation spokesperson Mikhail Verzeba said Komissarova fractured the 12th dorsal vertebrae in her lower-middle back and was taken to hospital near Rosa Khutor Extreme Park for emergency surgery.
“The operation is over . . . it’s been successful,” Verzeba said.
The International Olympic Committee was monitoring the situation. President Thomas Bach said, “Our thoughts are with the athlete and we wish her a full and speedy recovery.”
The national freestyle ski federation issued a statement later saying a team of specialists participated in the surgery to insert a metal implant in Komissarova’s spine. The federation said Komissarova was conscious, and described her condition as “grave” but stable, adding that it was likely she’d need further surgery within weeks.
The 23-year-old Komissarova was practising for next Friday’s contest on a sunny morning on the 1,200-metre course, which has nine banked turns and 25 jumps. In the main competition, six skiers race against each other, with the top three advancing through heats until the final.
Normally during practice runs, skiers are on the course themselves, or travelling down the mountain in loosely packed bunches.
“The course is difficult. It’s of the highest possible level of complexity, there is nothing simple about it,” Verzeba said. “However, this all is irrelevant now, she got injured, and the rest does not matter.”
Jenny Wiedeke, spokesperson for the International Ski Federation, said the accident occurred on a series of jumps near the top of the course and that Komissarova fell while exiting the third jump. She was taken by sled to the medical services tent, and from there to hospital. Team doctors decided to do the surgery immediately instead of transporting Komissarova down to Sochi.
Komissarova is ranked 33rd in the World Cup standings and recovered from a leg injury last year to qualify for the Olympics. Her best World Cup finish was a second-place at a race in Switzerland in 2012.
At the same event, Canadian ski cross racer Nik Zoricic suffered fatal head injuries in a crash near the final jump of a heat in the men’s race.
“Nik’s death wasn’t anything that happened with contact,” American racer John Teller said. “But we all understand how dangerous it is.”
Teller said the biggest concern for any ski cross racer comes during the racing part, not training or qualifications, which are individual runs down the mountain. He said most of the competitors had been complimentary of the course setup for the Sochi Games but labelled it a “bigger course.”
“It’s like a North American style course,” he said. “We race ski cross all year long in Europe. They tend to be smaller courses. I feel like this course is more of an X Games style of course.”
Several athletes have been injured during the Games, including a Russian ski jumper who broke his ribs after landing awkwardly in a training accident, and an ice worker at the sliding venue broke both legs when he was hit by a sled before a practice run on Thursday.
Sochi 2014: Putin visits skier Maria Komissarova in hospital
Russia president Vladimir Putin has visited Maria Komissarova in hospital after the freestyle skier fractured her spine in training on Saturday.
Komissarova, 23, required an emergency six-and-a-half hour operation after suffering a fracture and dislocation.
The Russian freestyle ski federation said her condition remained "grave but stable" and she could be moved to another hospital.
She was taken to hospital, close to Rosa Khutor Extreme Park, after the accident.
"Doctors carried out the necessary examination and took the decision to operate on her on the spot," the Russian federation said in a statement.
Putin visited her on Saturday evening to wish her a rapid recovery and phoned her father after the skier told him he was extremely worried. Her father is due to arrive in Sochi from St Petersburg.
Ski cross is an event in which skiers race down a mountain against each other while negotiating big-air jumps and obstacles. The discipline was added to the Winter Olympic programme in 2010.
International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said it was a sport "with a certain risk".
He added: "You will never be able to exclude every kind of risk - we feel very sorry for the athlete.
"We hope that the operation will be successful and that she will be back."
In 2012, Komissarova became the first Russian woman to win a World Cup medal in ski cross when she finished second in the event at Grindelwald, Switzerland.
She was then unable to compete for six months of 2013 after having surgery on a leg injury.
Dogs are seen fighting outside the Gorki Media Centre on February 15, 2014 in Sochi, Russia.
Machines creating snow is seen during the Men's Individual Gundersen Large Hill/10 km Nordic Combined training on day 8 of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics at the RusSki Gorki Ski Jumping Center on February 15, 2014 in Sochi, Russia.
Gold medalist Darya Domracheva of Belarus celebrates on the podium during the medal ceremony for the Biathlon Women's 15km Individual on day 8 of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics at Medals Plaza on February 15, 2014 in Sochi, Russia.
(L-R) Bronze medalist Nadezhda Skardino of Beralus, gold medalist Darya Domracheva of Belarus and Silver medalist Selina Gasparin of Switzerland cleebrate on the podium during the medal ceremony for the Biathlon Women's 15km Individual on day 8 of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics at Medals Plaza on February 15, 2014 in Sochi, Russia.
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