Downhill champ out for season
Svindal injures Achilles while playing soccer
VIENNA – Defending downhill world champion Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway will likely miss the entire ski season after tearing his Achilles tendon while playing soccer.
The Norwegian ski federation said that Svindal sustained the injury in Austria on Saturday – eight days before the men’s World Cup season starts with a giant slalom on the Rettenbach glacier in Soelden, Austria.
The season also includes the world championships in Vail and Beaver Creek in February.
“I was out for a little run with the rest of the team,” Svindal wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday. “We ended the session playing around with a ball. Just holding it up in the air between us. Suddenly I felt something snap in my leg and I knew right away that something was wrong. Achilles.”
Svindal said he was brought to a hospital in Innsbruck and underwent surgery shortly after.
“A real injury and extremely bad timing just as the season is about to start,” the Norwegian said. “Nobody can say 100 percent sure how long the recovery will take, but I’m ready for the weeks that are coming.”
Svindal added he planned to stay in Austria “for a while” before travelling to Oslo.
“He is probably out of the whole season,” spokesman Claes-Tommy Herland of the Norwegian ski federation told The Associated Press in a phone call.