A couple of local Olympians had terrible weekends on the slopes.
Olympic ski-cross gold medalist Ashleigh McIvor of Whistler, BC, tore her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in her left knee last weekend on a training run at the X Games.
The 27 year-old overshot a jump, with her jnee buckling on impact.
“It’s extremely frustrating but I’m thankful it’s not last year’s X Games, because that was our last event before the Olympics,” McIvor said from her Aspen hotel room. “I don’t have a head injury and I don’t have a spinal injury, so it’s OK, this will heal, and I’ll be back racing next year.
“I go through phases of being OK with it and focusing on how much worse it could be and how lucky I am that nothing really serious happened, and then I have my meltdowns here and there,” she added.
McIvor said she instantly knew she had torn her ACL. She suffered the same injury to the same knee back in 2005.
She’ll miss out the rest of the season, including the World Championships.
Meanwhile, news was even worse for North Vancouver’s Manny Osborne-Paradis.
Osborne-Paradis tore his anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee and broke the fibula in the same leg in a high-speed crash during a World Cup downhill race in Chamonix, France. The knee injury will require surgery and he’ll be sidelined for the rest of the season.
The 26-year-old was having a wonderful run, looking good for a podium finish. But he fell sideways and then somersaulted a couple of times into the safety netting.
Along with the leg injuries, Osborne-Paradis also suffered bruised ribs. He’ll be off the hills for an extended period of time.
– with files from the Canadian Press
Photo: Getty Images
