Three-time U.S. Olympic ski racer Steven Nyman will miss the Pyeonchang Games after tearing a ligament in his right knee during downhill training almost a year to the day after injuring his left knee on the same mountain.
He sustained the season-ending injury to his right ACL during preparation in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, before the final pre-Olympic World Cup downhill last week, the U.S. Ski and Snowboard announced Monday.
“That didn’t go as planned,” Nyman wrote in an Instagram post Monday saying he already had ligament surgery. “After an uneventful fall in Garmisch three days ago my knee hurt but I thought I would be fine. I later learned I tore my ACL on my right leg! It was 364 days from my big crash last year.”
Nyman, who will turn 36 in February, added he has “all intention” to be able to return to competition for the 2019 world championships.
In January 2017, the 6-foot-4 Nyman was hurt in downhill practice on the same Kandahar course. He had been having the fastest run of the day until he crashed off a jump and tore three ligaments in his left knee, then was airlifted off the course.
This time, he went into the safety netting lining the slope but pulled himself up and was able to ski the rest of the way down the mountain.
“I think I pushed too hard and just kind of did the splits. It was weird,” Nyman told the AP after his fall last week.
Nyman has won three World Cup downhill races and reached the podium eight other times. He came in third in the Olympic downhill test event in South Korea in February 2016.
As he worked his way back this season, his best showing in a downhill was 15th place in Kitzbuehel, Austria, this month.
He said he was looking forward to “trying to contend for a medal” at the Olympics, which start Feb. 9.
Nyman, who is from Utah, is the captain of the U.S. downhill team and was fourth in that event at the 2015 world championships. His top showing in the Olympics was 19th in the downhill at the 2006 Turin Games.
“He’s the leader of our family,” U.S. men’s Alpine head coach Sasha Rearick said. “He’s been the leader of the downhillers for a long time.”
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