Future is open

ÖSV lady suffers “total damage” in her left knee

During the last training run with Christina Födermayr (right), Sonja Gigler had an accident on the Reiteralm.(Bild: GEPA pictures)

Almost exactly one year after tearing her cruciate ligament in her right knee at the World Championships in Bakuriani, ÖSV ski cross racer Sonja Gigler was hit again during her comeback attempt on the Reiteralm - a torn left cruciate ligament. During the operation, it turned out that the knee was even worse affected than originally feared...

"I just couldn't and didn't want to believe it," says Sonja Gigler, describing the thoughts that went through her head on February 25. After the 22-year-old from Vorarlberg had suffered a torn cruciate ligament and lateral meniscus in her right knee 364 days earlier at the World Championships in Georgia, she worked extremely hard to get back to her old strength. And then - just a few moments before her comeback on the Reiteralm, Sonja didn't make an ideal landing in the very last training run after a "step-down", buckled and went down - the first diagnosis: torn cruciate ligament in her left knee. 

Sonja Gigler was completely devastated immediately after her injury.(Bild: Screenshot/ORF)

The situation in the last training run...(Bild: Screenshot/ORF)

... which led to the serious injury in her right knee.(Bild: Screenshot/ORF)

"That went really badly"
"Christina Födermayr and I raced at the very end so that the track would be faster and we wouldn't have a problem at this point," recalls the 2022 Junior World Champion. "Unfortunately, we didn't know that the track was still so slow - then we would have raced differently. That was a damn shame."
In the first moment after the incident, Gigler was completely devastated. "Of course you ask yourself why it's you again. Especially as you know what's coming for you now," says the Kästle pilot, who only returned to skiing in November 2023, but had already shown her huge quality again at the Reiteralm qualifiers in seventh and 13th place.

Artificial cartilage had to be inserted
Three days after the fall, the Harder woman underwent surgery at the Hochrum Private Clinic by knee expert Christian Fink. "It turned out that both menisci were torn, the inner ligament had been damaged and the cartilage was broken. It was basically a total loss," says the Ski Club Arlberg athlete. "I then had an artificial cartilage implanted straight away - now we have to see if the body accepts it."

"That can't be the end of it!"
What happens now? "That will only become clear in the next few weeks and months when we see how the healing process goes," Sonja is decidedly reserved. "On the other hand, the thought that this can't be the end of the story came very quickly." A rehab stay in the Gastein Valley is already firmly planned. "It's a great opportunity that the association offers us. I will certainly take advantage of it again this time," says Gigler, looking to the future.