The champion falls during the absolute, double fracture and damage to the ligaments. Ten months to get to the games to crown an extraordinary career: “I will try”
Dramatic season finale for Federica Brignone, the champion of blue skiing back from the conquest of the general world cup for the second time in the career with the free and giant descent cups as a side dish. The Aosta Valley was the protagonist of a very ugly fall during the Giant of the Absolutes in Val di Fassa and procured a terrible series of fractures that will force her to a long stop. Operated immediately, he will have to face a long phase of rehabilitation without certainties. The truth is that his participation in the top in the Olympics of the house in Milan Cortina, February 2026, is at strong risk: ten months seem many, but I am not for an athlete who had to crown the games with an extraordinary career with the aim of taking the first Olympic gold.
Everything happened in the space of a few moments, on a day that was to be only a party. Federica was facing a series of doors when he hooked a blue with his right arm, going on rotation and ending violently on the snow. His condition seemed immediately worrying. Transported to the end of the track on a Toboga, he needed the helicopter to arrive at the Trento hospital where, accompanied by his brother, he was able to carry out the first investigations.
The Federsci bulletin has left no room for interpretations: “Plurithery broken fracture of the tibial dish and the head of the perone of the left leg”, a diagnosis that prompted the Fisi Medical Commission to prepare the immediate transfer to the “La Madonnina” clinic in Milan where it was decided for the operation because the fractures were defined as important. During the intervention, damage to the ligaments also emerged, partly repaired immediately and partly left at a later time. She, Federica, has always remained conscious and dictated a few words (but of hope) to the ANSA: “At the happiest moment of my career it did not really want to, she still waited for me for a month of work and I could not wait to do it. Today the conditions of the track were excellent, I was fine. And if I went back I would do it all the same … but try not to fall”.
And now, what happens? Certainly the Aosta Valley champion will skip all the summer preparation and his next season of the World Cup is compromised. The goal, however, was and remains another: to present himself to the starting gate of the Olympics to crown a long pursuit. Professor Andrea Panzeri made the synthesis in the evening who operated it to allow it immediately the stabilization of the injured party and the start of the recovery: “The intervention went well, I would say even better than expected: a bad fracture was confirmed with a binding capsule lesion of the medial part and also of the front crusader. The bone reduction has come well, a plaque was placed with screws. Medial binding, while the crusader we will evaluate later.
Messages of closeness and solidarity from all over the world of ski and beyond have arrived at the Brignone. The president of Coni wrote to her, Giovanni Malagò: “You will return to make us rejoice more than before, as a true ‘tiger’ of the snow. With your class, your smile and your awareness. You will write other indelible pages of alpine skiing. We are waiting for you soon -added Malagò -, to take that dream Milan -Cortina 2026 that the bad luck cannot deny you.
The dramatic injury comes a few days after the triumph in the World Cup in Sun Valley on 22 March last, higher than a year to remember for the athlete who chases only Alberto Tomba in the world cup races. In 2024 and 2025 for her 10 successes and two world medals in Saalbach. At 34, the demonstration of being in the midst of maturity and without any desire to give up before the Olympics of the house. Now the run -up will get more difficult.
