Canada’s downhill world champion John Kucera is in danger of missing next year’s Vancouver Olympics after breaking his leg in a high-speed fall on Sunday.
Kucera was airlifted from the Lake Louise course to a nearby hospital after crashing into the safety netting during the season-opening World Cup super-G, won by his teammate Manuel Osborne-Paradis.
“John Kucera has a left leg fracture that will require surgery,” said Alpine Canada in a statement.
There was no immediate comment on whether he would be able to compete at the Olympics, starting in February.
The 25-year-old Kucera was regarded as one of his country’s top medal hopes for Vancouver and his injury overshadowed Osborne-Paradis’ first Cup super-G win.
“It’s amazing but just too bad this wonderful day has been overshadowed by John’s crash,” he told reporters. “We just have to hope that everything is fine. We are going to miss having such a great skier on our team. But we have a strong team in that you have to fight just to qualify for an Olympic spot.”
Osborne-Paradis, who won a World Cup downhill event in Norway last season but had never finished better than 13th in super-G, clocked a winning time of 1 minute, 32.93 seconds.
He finished more than a second clear of Benjamin Raich and his fellow Austrian Michael Walchhofer, last season’s World Cup downhill champion.
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