Enlarge image
Petra Vlhova fell badly during the giant slalom in Jasna
Photo: Giovanni Maria Pizzato / AP
The Alpine Ski World Cup has claimed the next high-profile fall victim.
Olympic champion Petra Vlhova fell during the giant slalom at her home World Cup in Jasna, Slovakia and had to be rescued with the rescue sled.
After falling on the very icy and slippery slope, the 28-year-old grabbed her right knee.
Vlhova made a serious inside ski error on the ninth gate.
She fell on her back and landed awkwardly in the safety fence.
In the finish area, where thousands of fans wanted to celebrate a party for their superstar, there was suddenly an eerie silence.
When Vlhova was taken away a few minutes later, she waved to her supporters but appeared to be in pain.
Falls made delays necessary
Numerous other top athletes had enormous problems with the “Lukova 2” route in the Lower Tatras, and in some cases they were extremely behind.
Only the Swedish Sara Hector, Olympic champion in Beijing, coped really well with the conditions.
Before the final (1 p.m.) she is already one second ahead of superstar Mikaela Shiffrin (USA).
Third is Alice Robinson (New Zealand/+1.05).
The race started late due to the fall of a forerunner.
The former world-class athlete Nicole Hosp (Austria), who works as a camera operator for ORF, is also said to have fallen.
According to her broadcaster, she was also injured.
In the past few weeks, alpine superstars such as Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, Alexis Pinturault and Marco Schwarz had serious falls in the races in Wengen and Bormio and suffered season-ending injuries.
In the wake of the series of injuries, the World Ski Federation FIS came under criticism because of the packed racing calendar, which hardly allows athletes any rest periods.
cev/sid