‘Skiing back be brutal’: Shiffrin visits partner Kilde in hospital after huge crash

Downhill racer Aleksander Aamodt Kilde dislocated his shoulder in a nasty crash and posted a photo with his partner, Mikaela Shiffrin, on Sundayat his bedside in a hospital in Bern where he was operated on.

Kilde was flown by helicopter from the finish area in Wengen on Saturday after crashing into trackside safety barriers in the final corner of the longest race on the World Cup circuit.

“I am here (and) being taken care of by the one and only @MikaelaShiffrin ),” Kilde posted on X, adding an emoji of a red heart wrapped in a bandage. “This sport can be brutal, but I still love it.”

The photo showed the 31-year-old Norwegian with cuts on his nose, lips and chin while Shiffrin kissed his forehead.

Shiffrin is next to race in Austria on Tuesday and the American star came to the Swiss capital after her partner’s crash on Saturday’s classic Lauberhorn descent in Wengen.

Kilde has long been a standout racer, a three-time winner in Wengen and overall World Cup champion in 2020. He is a two-time defending champion in the downhill season rankings and a two-time medalist at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

Kilde was launched from his skis and spun around in the air before slamming hard into the fences in an exhausting run for more than two minutes and 20 seconds. It was the third race day in a row with an unusually intense program at Switzerland’s most legendary ski location.

“Aleksander has a dislocated shoulder and a cut in his calf. He has no fractures, but is bruised,” Norwegian team doctor Marc Jacob Strauss said in a statement published by the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS), saying Kilde underwent surgery on Saturday evening.

The racing program was criticized by star downhillers on Saturday Marco Odermatt and Cyprien Sarrazin after organizers planned speed races on consecutive days on a historic long course.

An additional descent on Thursday was added to the Wengen schedule to replace a race canceled last month due to weather in Beaver Creek, Colorado.

Kilde had been ill earlier in the week before finishing third both on Thursday and in a super-G on Friday, and then appeared tired at the end of his descent on Saturday.

“Maybe we had a lesson now,” Odermatt said after winning on Saturday and adding to his victory on Thursday. He also came second in the super-G. “I really don’t think we need three races here, even if it was good for me.”

“Three days is very physically demanding,” said Sarrazin, who finished second to Odermatt in both downhills and won the super-G.