ST MORITZ, Switzerland, Dec 11 (Reuters) – Olympic ski champion Michelle Gisin will undergo neck surgery after a heavy fall during downhill training in St Moritz on Thursday in another major setback for the Swiss Alpine team ahead of the Milano Cortina Games.
The 32-year-old, who won the combined event in both the 2018 and 2022 editions of the Winter Olympics, was flown to Zurich after immediate medical attention on the slope.
Swiss Ski said Gisin, who crashed into safety netting, had suffered injuries to her right wrist, left knee and cervical spine (neck).
It said she could move her arms and legs normally and would undergo surgery on Thursday for the spinal injury.
Further examinations of the wrist and knee will be carried out after the cervical spine was stabilised, Swiss Ski added.
Gisin is the third Olympic champion in the Swiss women’s team to suffer serious training incidents.
Two-time overall World Cup winner Gut-Behrami, the reigning Olympic Super-G champion, was ruled out of the Games last month when she suffered a torn cruciate ligament in training in Colorado.
Olympic downhill champion Corinne Suter tore a muscle in her leg while training in St Moritz earlier this month and faces a month on the sidelines.
The Milano Cortina Games start on February 6, with the individual combined events no longer on the schedule and replaced instead by women’s and men’s team combined events with a downhill and slalom skier in each team.
Gisin was the 17th starter in Thursday’s training – one place ahead of American great Lindsey Vonn, whose run was halted.
Vonn, hoping to medal at Cortina at the age of 41, was fastest on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Tommy Lund in Gdansk/Alan Baldwin in LondonEditing by Christian Radnedge)
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