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Italian Federica Brignone has ended her Alpine skiing season before the last World Cup races after returning from breaking her left leg last April to win two Olympic gold medals.
“I think I’ve asked a lot of my body over these past months,” Brignone said, according to an International Ski and Snowboard Federation translation of an Italian ski federation press release. “From the very day I got injured, I dedicated myself entirely to the goal of competing at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Games, achieving the double result of carrying the Italian flag and stepping onto the podium. I even managed to do it twice, and even to stand on the top step of the podium. I tried to continue the season, but now my body is making me pay the price. With the season nearing its end, I’m taking this opportunity to give myself a break and then continue my rehabilitation in the best possible way. It has obviously been pushed to the limit throughout this whole period in order to achieve the miracle we were able to accomplish.“
Brignone, 35, won the Olympic super-G and giant slalom, becoming the oldest Alpine skier to take Olympic gold.
She did so 10 months after sustaining multiple left leg fractures and a torn ACL in a giant slalom crash, which led to surgeries last April and in July.
She returned to skiing in November and to World Cup racing two weeks before the Olympics.
After the Games, she raced in World Cup super-Gs this past Saturday and Sunday, placing 15th and eighth in Andorra.
There are three more stops left this World Cup season -- two downhills and a super-G this weekend in Val di Fassa, Italy; a giant slalom and slalom in Are, Sweden and then the World Cup Finals (one race each of downhill, super-G, giant slalom and slalom) in Norway from March 21-25.
Mikaela Shiffrin leads the World Cup overall standings by 170 points, a significant margin as she aims to succeed Brignone as the World Cup overall champion and claim her sixth big crystal globe.