During training in Chile

ÖSV World Cup fixed starter suffers cruciate ligament rupture

Emily Schöpf would have had a fixed ticket for the new World Cup season - but is now out with a torn cruciate ligament.

(Bild: photoevenement/Gilles Baron)

The World Cup season hasn't even really started yet and already the injury devil has struck brutally twice in the ÖSV women's team. After slalom hopeful Sophia Waldauf tore her cruciate ligament and suffered a shoulder injury in Argentina a few weeks ago, a fixed starter in the Downhill World Cup has now also been hit.

"I don't know how it happened," says Emily Schöpf, baffled. The 24-year-old from Vorarlberg, who would have had a fixed starting place in the new World Cup winter as the overall winner of the 2023/24 European Downhill Cup ranking, was on a super-G training run last Sunday - the penultimate day of the ÖSV speed girls' camp in Chile.

In medium-steep terrain, the top police athlete suddenly slipped during a right turn and skidded a few meters down the slope, where she finally came to a halt.

Knee expert to undergo surgery on Sunday
It quickly became clear that her left knee had been damaged. As more detailed examinations revealed, not only the cruciate ligament but also the outer meniscus was torn, Schöpf - who is now in Austria - will be operated on by knee expert Doctor Christian Fink in the Hochrum sanatorium on Sunday. This means that the Atomic skier will have to take a break for six to eight months and will also miss the home World Championships in Saalbach in February. 

"I didn't expect this diagnosis at all, as I only slipped harmlessly on the inside ski and hardly had any pain. This is of course very bitter and disappointing for me after I was able to secure a fixed place in the downhill this winter and had set myself some goals for the coming season," Schöpf is quoted as saying in an ÖSV statement.

Comeback after difficult times
Not the first serious injury for the Montafon native: in February 2019, she tore the cruciate ligament in her right knee at the Junior World Championships in Val di Fassa (Italy). She had to prematurely abandon a comeback attempt in February 2020. Things slowly improved the following winter before "Emy" contracted the coronavirus in April 2021 and subsequently struggled with heart problems.

However, she successfully fought her way back, won her first European Cup downhill in December 2021 - in Val di Fassa (Italy) of all places, where she had suffered her first cruciate ligament rupture - and was on course for a World Cup permanent place for the winter of 2022/23 until shortly before the end of the season. In the end, she was just four points short.

World Cup points and a permanent ticket
Last season was the highlight of Schöpf's young but already very eventful career. She made the headlines at the World Cup opener in Zermatt with second place in training and secured her first ten World Cup points in the second Crans Montana downhill. She missed out on overall victory in the European Cup by just 21 points, although she was severely hampered by a swollen calf after a fall in the final races.

And now the cruciate ligament and meniscus tear in Chile - a bitter setback for Emy, who joined the Rauch Racers team this summer. "But I will accept this challenge and fight my way back," says the Tschagguns native, who is already feeling positive again.