Ester Ledecká did not appear at the start of Friday’s World Cup convention in Cortina d’Ampezzo. After undergoing a lung examination due to lingering health problems, although she was on the starting list, she did not start the race and will miss the next Saturday’s race. The race was affected by the serious fall of the American Mikaela Shiffrin, the Austrian skier Stephanie Venier won.
Ledecká has been suffering from health problems since the beginning of winter. Although she won two Snowboard World Cup races in Pamporovo last weekend, she went to Innsbruck for an examination on Wednesday after the first downhill training session in Cortina. She was ordered to rest by the doctors.
“He’s not 100 percent yet. He will not go on Fridays and in the cathedral. Depending on how she feels, she will decide whether she would start on Sunday,” said her spokeswoman Erika Alchusová.
It is still unclear what the lung scan revealed.
“There is no further information. It’s a protracted virus,” said Alchusová. “She has to feel 100% fit to be able to start the race. This is not the case at the moment. If she feels better tomorrow, she will try to start on Sunday.”
There is another downhill on the program in Cortina on Saturday, and a super-G race on Sunday. Ledecká herself did not comment on her condition. “He needs to rest, to gain strength,” Alchus said.
The race was stopped soon after the start due to a serious injury to the American Mikaela Shiffrin, who got compressed in a narrow part of the course, which sent her straight to the safety nets.
Mikaela Shiffrin fell in the downhill • Photo by Repro CT Sport
“She didn’t have the opportunity to slip elsewhere. She hit that net at quite a speed. And most of all, what I didn’t like, she tiptoed forward,” recounted former representative Klára Křížová in a live broadcast on Czech Television.
Shiffrin remained motionless for several long tens of seconds, soon a group of rescuers gathered around her.
“At first I was scared of breaking my tibia. Mikaela jumped far, low. The problem was the collision with the network,” said Křížová.
“At that moment, Mikaela looked like a rag doll,” said commentator Tomáš Budka.
Fortunately, Shiffrin got up after a few minutes and was able to leave the scene of the accident with the help of paramedics. A helicopter then transported her to the hospital. Fortunately, the suspected injury to the ligaments in the right knee was not confirmed during the examination. “She was examined for an injury to her left leg. Initial analyzes indicate that both the ACL and PCL were impacted,” the US Ski Federation said on Instagram.
Even before Shiffrinová, the Swiss Priska Nuferová had a hard fall, who then painfully held her hand. Even the Italian Federica Brignone did not reach the finish line among the favorites, but she escaped without injury. In the same place as Shiffrin, Switzerland’s Corinne Suter injured her knee.
SP race in downhill skiing in Cortina d’Ampezzo (Italy):
Women – convention: 1. Venierová (Austria) 1:33.06, 2. Gutová-Behramiová (Switzerland) -0.39, 3. Grenierová (Can.), Agerová (Austria) and Goggiaová all -0.71, 6 Pirovanová (both It.) -0.91.
Current order of the congress (after 4 out of 10 races): 1. Goggiaová 290, 2. Venierová 216, 3. Gutová-Behramiová 164, 4. Puchnerová (Austria) 160, 5. Fluryová (Switzerland) 159, 6. Hütterová (Austria) 157, …29. Ledecka (Czech Republic) 31.
Current order of the SP (after 23 out of 43 races): 1. Shiffrinová (USA) 1209, 2. Gutová-Behramiová 869, 3. Vlhová (SR) 802, 4. Brignonová (It.) 787, 5. Hectorová (Swed.) 647, 6. Goggiaová 642, …57. Ledecká 76, 58. Dubovská 73, 106. Jelínková (both Czech Republic) 9.
