ST. MORITZ, Switzerland (AP) — Two-time Olympic medalist Sofia Goggia broke two fingers in her left hand when she hit a gate en route to a second-place finish in a World Cup downhill on Friday.
The often-injured Goggia broke her index and middle fingers during the race in St. Moritz and was transported to Milan for immediate surgery with the aim of getting her back to the Swiss resort by evening to race in another downhill scheduled for the Corviglia course on Saturday.
“I felt immediately after the impact that something had happened to the hand,” Goggia said. “At the finish I could hardly move it. It’s too bad, because it was a great race. I’ll do everything I can to be ready for Saturday’s downhill.”
“I’ll decide whether to race only a few minutes before the start,” she added after the surgery.
It’s about a three-hour drive between Milan and St. Moritz.
The Italian ski team said a metal rod and screws were placed inside her hand to stabilize it and her hand wrapped in a cast.
Elena Curtoni, Goggia’s teammate, won Friday’s race.
It was a similar scenario to when Curtoni won her previous race in Cortina d’Ampezzo last season and Goggia crashed two weeks before the Beijing Olympics, injuring a ligament in her left knee and sustaining a light fracture in that leg. Goggia still managed to come back in time to win a silver medal in downhill at the games.
Goggia won gold in the downhill at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics.
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