Austria’s Katharina Liensberger, 2022 Olympic slalom silver medallist, will miss the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics after sustaining a serious knee injury during training.

The Austrian Ski Association confirmed that Liensberger will undergo surgery on Friday after examinations revealed:

• A fracture of the tibial plateau
• A torn meniscus
• A medial collateral ligament (MCL) injury in her right knee

Austria’s 28-year-old slalom specialist suffered the crash in St. Michael, just a month before the start of the Olympics in Italy, effectively ending her 2025–2026 season.

Liensberger has a decorated career, including:

• Team gold and slalom silver at the 2022 Beijing Olympics
• Slalom world champion in 2021
• Slalom bronze at the 2025 World Championships in Saalbach, Austria

At the Milano Cortina Games, Liensberger would have faced fierce competition from American star Mikaela Shiffrin, the most successful World Cup skier ever, who has won the last six World Cup slaloms and five this season.

Rising Concerns About Safety

This incident adds Liensberger to a growing list of top female skiers sidelined before the Olympics due to serious injuries, including three Swiss Olympic champions – Michelle Gisin, Lara Gut-Behrami, and Corinne Suter – who were also hurt in training accidents.

The sport’s dangers have been under scrutiny, especially after the tragic death of Italian skier Matteo Franzoso in a training accident in Chile last September.

Shiffrin highlighted the risks at the start of the Olympic ski season:

“We are often training in conditions where the variables are just too many to control and you have to decide sometimes: Is this unreasonably dangerous?”

The focus now turns to Liensberger’s recovery and the ongoing debate about athlete safety in high-speed alpine skiing, as the 2026 Winter Olympics approach.