Tereza Nova has woken up from her coma. © AFP / FABRICE COFFRINI

One month after horror crash: Ski ace awakens from coma

Czech ski racer Tereza Nova is being brought back home almost a month after her serious training crash in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

20. February 2025

From: det

The 27-year-old was woken from her coma and is in a stable condition, according to an update published by the world association FIS. She will now be transferred to a hospital in the Czech Republic, where further examinations will take place. After that, the 2022 Olympic participant can expect a long rehabilitation phase.

Nova had a heavy fall during downhill training on the Kandahar slope at the end of January and was then flown by helicopter directly to the Murnau accident clinic. The athlete was diagnosed with severe head trauma with bleeding, an injury to the carotid artery and a fracture of the eye socket, it was reported. She was operated on and put into an artificial coma. After two weeks, the doctors began to reduce the medication and gradually wake Nova up again.

"We still have a long way to go"

"It was a great stroke of luck that everyone reacted so quickly," said Nova's partner Ondrej Berndt, who is also the Czech national coach. He expressly thanked the hospital staff and everyone who supported Nova. He and her immediate family accompanied Nova throughout her entire hospital stay in Murnau. "We still have a long way to go, but I am convinced that we will make it," said Berndt.