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St. Moritz 2010. Super-G. Georgia Simmerling crashes for the first time in an important race. The helicopter comes and takes you to the hospital.
Park City, Utah, 2012, after switching to ski cross, she ended up in a torso corset after a violent fall. Three vertebrae are broken – in the neck and chest area.
In 2015 it’s the wrists. Doctors put two plates and ten screws in.
But that’s nothing compared to the crash at the last ski cross race before the Winter Games a year ago. Simmerling described the consequences of this to Canadian radio a few months ago.
“I was one of the hopes for a medal for Pyeongchang. But I broke both my legs in the race and tore the ligaments in my right knee. It was a very, very tough six months afterwards.”
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Four operations were necessary. And she had to learn to walk again. “It was brutal,” she said a few days ago in an interview with Deutschlandfunk.
Normally a career would come to an end after such an injury. But the 29-year-old Canadian seems indestructible. She, who already took part in the Winter Games in Vancouver 2010 – at that time in the Alpine Games – and also in Sochi 2014 – now in Ski Cross, only gave up her ambitions in terms of winter sports.
Because her rehab was successful enough to be able to return to the top in a completely different sport. The extremely ambitious and extremely versatile Simmerling will take part in the Track Cycling World Championships in Pruszków, Poland, next week. She fought back her place on the Canadian team in the team pursuit. Already in 2016 she finished third with the quartet in Rio.
“Pretty fast again”
Qualification will take place on the World Cup track on Wednesday. The decision is on Thursday.
Simmerling says: “We are seen as outsiders. We haven’t had any remarkable results in the last two years. But we’re pretty fast again. And it’s really fun.”
Anyone who has been injured so often and so badly needs special resilience and energy to face the challenges that your own body puts in your way every time. “Overcoming these injuries – that’s what really made me the athlete I am today,” says Simmerling.
Another medal if possible
Living at the limit – that always went well with the need for self-expression that Georgia Simmerling lived out on social media, among other things. There, where, in the summer of 2017, she proudly displayed the tattoo with the five Olympic rings and the Roman numerals of the three Olympiads, which stand for her three participations. Another – the number XXXII – is to be added next year on the slopes of the Tokyo Games in the Izu Velodrome. And if possible another medal.
After that, however, it will probably be over. After all, a career with extreme depths and some broken dreams not only affects the bones, joints and ligaments, but also has an impact on mental performance.
“I’ll be 31 in Tokyo. A good age to do something different. I’m already looking forward to the time after my career,” says Simmerling.
You can listen to the full article in our media library for at least six months.
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