Alpine Skiing-Olympics Over for Strobl After Kitzbuehel Crash
Runner-up two years ago at the blue-riband Kitzbuehel race, the 27-year-old came off a jump and crashed into the so-called compression just before the finish line on the treacherous Streif Piste.
Organizers suspended training to allow a helicopter to airlift Strobl to hospital.
Austrian ski team doctor Karl Benedetto told reporters that Strobl had torn his interior cruciate ligament, his medial collateral ligament and posterior articular capsule in his left knee.
He also suffered a splintering of the bone in the hollow of his knee.
Strobl, whose chances of qualifying for the Olympics were very good after two podium finishes in Bormio and Wengen, was being taken to a clinic in nearby schruns for surgery, Benedetto added.
"On the surface he's okay, but he knows that the Olympics are now over for him and that he's got to wait another four years," Benedetto said.
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The speed specialist's injury is the latest to hit the Austrian men's team, which has nevertheless managed to secure the most podium finishes of any nation this season.
Double Olympic and reigning World Cup champion Hermann Maier has been sidelined from competition after breaking his leg in a motorcycle accident in August.
Werner Franz, who has made it on to the Kitzbuehel downhill podium four times, is also nursing an injury, while downhill World Champion Hannes Trinkl has just returned to competition after fracturing his skull in training.
The Streif Downhill, considered the most demanding of Downhill slopes and the one skiers say is the most rewarding to win, is scheduled for Saturday.
Downhill World Cup leader Stephan Eberharter of Austria clocked the fastest time in the first of three training runs despite braking before the finish.
Eberharter, who has never placed higher than third on the dreaded Streif Piste down the Hahnenkamm mountain, posted a time of one minute and 56.46 seconds under a cloudless sky.
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