Lisa Hörnblad was Sweden’s only skier in the Olympics in Pyeongchang 2018. There she impressed as a 21-year-old debutant with place 17 in downhill, to the season thereafter finish ninth in the home WC (combination) and reach personal best in the World Cup as eleven (downhill).
The talent was about to put Swedish speed skiing on the map again.
Then came the setback.
When Hörnblad now steps in in the alpine speed premiere in Lake Louise, Canada, she has not been at the start of the World Cup since February 24, 2019.
During bare ground training a few months later, she pulled off her cruciate ligament and was forced to undergo surgery.
According to an initial forecast she would be back on snow in March 2020. But the way back was longer than that.
– The first months there were no problems, then you lived on hope. But the last year was pure hell, Lisa Hörnblad tells DN today.
– I have had to throw away. Really bad. The first time is a dance on roses, but when it starts to go six or eight months and you have to be a little done with the rehab, but I am horse lengths away and everything goes wrong…. then it was very hard both physically and mentally. When I was actually going to be back on snow, I had surgery again.
– Lisa Hörnblad in VM-super-G: ni Åre 2019.
Photo: Joel Marklund / Bildbyrån
Yes, she underwent surgery again in 2020 and then there was another operation as late as April this year. By then, the 25-year-old had almost given up hope.
– Before that operation, the doctor was quite honest and said “Lisa, there is not much chance that it will be much better”. Then it was very dark. I thought I had been told that I would probably have to stop, that this would never be good, she says.
When did it turn around?
– It was really only in July this year that I felt that “this can go for real”. Before that it was really dark. And in the end, I felt that I might have to give up my career. I just started crying at the thought.
Just being able to ski again was not what attracted a comeback either.
– I wanted to be able to come back and compete at the highest level. Otherwise I was not interested. And then it’s fragile. Then you have to have a good body, says Hörnblad.
What was the cause of all the setbacks?
– It is always difficult to say exactly what went wrong but the first operation I do not think was very successful. Then they had to do it twice and no one really knew what the problem was. I have changed doctors three times and physiotherapist ten times. You are sent around and no one knows anything, every chance… you test a hundred different things.
– “I wanted to be able to come back and compete at the highest level. Otherwise I was not interested, ”says Lisa Hörnblad.
Photo: Joel Marklund / Bildbyrån
But almost miraculously so the hope for a world cup season 2021–22 was lit this summer. Now the Winter Olympics in Beijing are in mind, although Lisa Hörnblad chooses to look at shorter perspectives.
It is tough to know how she is after two years of absence, she says. And the knee will probably never be completely one hundred percent.
– So I have to adapt my training a lot and work a lot on the side of the hill. But on the slopes it works well and I can do what I have to.
That she’s back where she thrives best can also not be missed.
– It is absolutely fantastic to be back on skis, live this life and do what I love, says Hörnblad.
– It feels like home and I really feel that this is what I want, this is what I have been striving for all along.