As of: February 2, 2024, 10:42 a.m
By: Luca Hartmann
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For many athletes, a torn cruciate ligament inevitably means an early end to the season.
But not for skier Joana Hählen – she is aiming for her comeback this winter.
Cortina/Zurich – The Ski World Cup is being overshadowed by an unusually high number of serious falls and injuries this season.
Some world-class athletes, such as the Norwegian Aleksander Aamodt Kilde or slalom ace Petra Vlhova, had to end the season early.
Top Swiss rider Joana Hählen was also threatened with the same fate.
But despite a torn cruciate ligament, the 32-year-old could return to the slopes sooner than expected.
Hählen suffers a torn cruciate ligament in Cortina d'Ampezzo
At the World Cup in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Hählen initially joined the long list of falls and injuries this winter in the downhill.
After a long jump, Hählen landed awkwardly on his right leg.
She was able to prevent a fall, but after a few seconds she stopped her ride and remained lying on the slope in pain.
Ski star Mikaela Shiffrin also fell badly in Cortina, and Valerie Grenier also suffered serious injuries in her fall.
Hählen can still drive to the finish line himself, but after the first on-site investigations the prognosis doesn't look good.
In her native Switzerland, her fears came true: the 32-year-old tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee.
All of this just one day after her teammate Corinne Suter also tore her cruciate ligament in Cortina.
Despite another cruciate ligament tear, Joana Hählen (archive photo) is hoping for a quick comeback.
© Montage: imago/joanahaehlen/instagram
Swiss ski star foregoes surgery and dreams of a lightning comeback
Despite the bitter diagnosis, Hählen will not have an operation.
She made the decision together with the Swiss team's medical team.
There is even hope that she will be able to compete again this winter.
“With such an injury, the course of rehabilitation is always difficult to estimate.
But it is quite possible that she can intervene in the racing again this season,” team doctor Walter O. Frey was quoted as saying in a statement from the association.
“I look at it day by day and don’t want to rush anything,” explained Hählen himself. “The healing process depends on how the pronounced swelling in the knee develops.
I will now invest a lot of energy in rehabilitation and hope to soon receive the green light from the doctors and trainers to be back on skis.” For the speed specialist, it is the next setback in a career marked by serious injuries.
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Hählen's fourth cruciate ligament tear
Unimaginable for many: This is the fourth cruciate ligament tear that Hählen has suffered.
After the last tear in her left knee in 2018, she decided not to have an operation and described this step as “perhaps the best decision of my life”.
She was finally able to overcome the initial pain caused by overexertion through targeted training.
Hählen will also hope for a similar scenario in this case.
“I have good knees, but I have to take care of them – you’re not getting any younger,” she said in the fall before the start of the season.
She will now have to take particular care of and care for her right knee.
If this is successful, it is actually possible to return to the slopes in the current season.