Knee operation pending

Next ÖSV lady out for entire World Championship season

ÖSV women's head coach Roland Assinger (r.) hopes that giant slalom specialist Elisabeth Kappaurer will make a comeback soon.

(Bild: GEPA pictures)

No way! ÖSV giant slalom specialist Elisabeth Kappaurer, who has already had to miss several seasons due to serious injuries, is out again. A few days after her 30th birthday, the Vorarlberg native crashed during training on the glacier in Sölden and has to undergo an operation on her left knee on Wednesday evening at the Hochrum Sanatorium.

Elisabeth Kappaurer's history of suffering is a long one. It began in November 2015 when she fell in during a FIS giant slalom on the Diavolezza (Sz). She suffered cartilage damage in her right knee and had to have an operation, but was able to make a comeback after just two months.

On September 27, 2018, "Lisi" had a serious fall during glacier training in Saas-Fee and broke her left tibia and fibula. After having to sit out for a year, she returned to training ahead of the 2019/20 season and traveled to Argentina with the ÖSV team for training.

It was there that Kappaurer experienced what was probably the darkest hour of her career. Eleven months to the day after the crash in Saas-Fee, she crashed in Ushuaia and suffered complicated fractures to her right tibia and fibula, as well as an avulsion fracture to her left tibial plateau. A year-long battle with countless operations began - which the head skier ultimately won despite numerous setbacks: on January 8, 2022, she made her World Cup comeback after more than three years at the giant slalom in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia.

Successful comeback after more than three years
As a result, Kappaurer was able to secure second place in the overall European Giant Slalom Cup rankings in the winter of 2022/23 and thus a permanent World Cup ticket for the 2023/24 season. The Vorarlberg native has since re-established herself in the top 30 in the world and after her "first summer without pain and surgery", she was in top shape and ready to attack her top result from October 2017 - when she was the fourth-best Austrian in 13th place - at the World Cup opener in Sölden. But that will now come to nothing.

Rollercoaster of emotions
The reason: on Monday, Kappaurer crashed during training with the ÖSV team on the Sölden glacier. "It 'ate' my ski and I flew off head first. My left knee went through," says Lisi, describing the situation. After initial treatment, she was taken to the private clinic in Hochrum with a suspected cruciate ligament rupture. "Doctor Christian Fink said that the cruciate ligament felt unstable and ordered an MRI," continues Kappaurer, for whom this examination was the "longest half hour of my life" and who experienced a "rollercoaster of emotions".

Killington as an ambitious goal
Afterwards, however, the all-clear was given. "The cruciate ligament is whole, it even looks pretty good!" However, she didn't get away injury-free: "I suffered a cartilage fracture and will undergo an arthroscopy with Doctor Fink on Wednesday evening," explains Lisi. "After that, we'll have to see how the knee develops. But I'm known for setting myself ambitious goals and that's why I want to make a comeback in seven weeks at the World Cup in Killington."