Olympic skier Nina O’Brien from Team USA crashed Monday during the final moments of her second run in the Beijing Olympics and suffered a serious leg injury.
O’Brien is “alert and responsive,” according to United States Ski and Snowboard. Immediately following her tumble across the finish line, O’Brien was treated by medical personnel and carried off the field on a stretcher.
“She is very tough and was calm,” the organization tweeted. “She’s a fighter. She was worried about delaying the race. And also she wanted to know how fast she was skiing.”
Scary crash! US skier Nina O’Brien injured her left leg in a crash. She was taken off the slopes in a stretcher but was alert and responsive pic.twitter.com/vRIu9LECVV
— John Rogers (@JohnRogers8News) February 7, 2022
The accident occurred during her second run in the giant slalom competition, in which competitors ski through a series of gates along a trail. It is not clear what place she would have been in had she not crashed, but she was in sixth at the end of her first run.
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O’Brien clipped one of the final gates, causing her to lose control of both her skis and poles. She screamed out in pain as she tumbled through the finish line.
O’Brien was the third out of four U.S. competitors not to finish the course after team member Mikaela Shiffrin skied out of bounds during her first run, which eliminated her from the competition. Shiffrin had been favored to win gold in the event. However, dozens of other competitors also failed to finish the course.
“We are so heartbroken for Nina… she showed so much heart and fire in her skiing today, and it all got shredded to pieces on the final turn,” Shiffrin tweeted. “This sport… this sport is SO damn hard. It’s brutal, and it hurts — far more often than it ever feels good.”
Shiffrin added that she and her team are “crossing our fingers” for the best possible outcome for O’Brien.
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O’Brien has been moved out of the venue for further evaluation with the team’s medical staff, the team tweeted. O’Brien’s teammate Paula Moltzan was the only team USA woman to finish the course and finished 12th. Sweden’s Sara Hector won gold.
