Departure with a broken cruciate ligament: Carlo Janka's miraculous return

A torn cruciate ligament is one of the most common and long-lasting injuries in the ski business. Normally an operation is unavoidable and the downtime of six months is inevitable. That would have meant the end of the Olympic dream for Carlo Janka, who suffered this serious injury during giant slalom training at the end of October.

The Swiss didn't want to miss the highlight on the slope in South Korea where he won the Super-G in 2016. So he decided to have the cruciate ligament rupture treated conservatively and with manual therapy. Only the hands are used for this. A healing procedure that was effective: “The last examination images show that everything in the knee is well scarred,” explained Janka in a recent interview.

The dream of the Olympics And his plan, which was initially viewed critically by many, actually seems to be working. In the last few days, Janka trained with the national team again for the first time in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and today, Wednesday, he did the official training run on the longest downhill slope in the world at the Lauberhorn in Wengen. In the end he finished 21st. “I still lack confidence, I had little slips everywhere. And the visibility wasn’t optimal either,” Janka summed up after training.

Whether he will compete in the downhill in Wengen and keep his dream of the Olympics alive (a top 7 placement is required to qualify) will be decided on Thursday: “In the second training session we have to move forward again. Otherwise it makes no sense.” In addition to Wengen, the Swiss still had the races in Kitzbühel and Garmisch-Partenkirchen to book his ticket for Pyeongchang. “But if it doesn’t work,” says Janka, “I can at least say with a clear conscience that I tried everything.”

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Departure with a broken cruciate ligament: Carlo Janka's miraculous return

On October 24, 2017, the Swiss Carlo Janka tore his cruciate ligament and would have been out for at least six months. Now, 78 days later, he took part in his first downhill training in Wengen and is even hoping for the Olympics. How does it work?

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