Downhiller McKennis Suffers Injury in Mammoth
Two-time Olympian Alice McKennis (New Castle, Colo.) suffered a left leg tibia and fibula injury last Thursday while coaching at the American Downhiller camp and will be sidelined for 2018-19 summer conditioning and prep period camps, but plans to return to snow in the fall.
“While I am very disappointed with my recent injury that was the result of a freak accident while slipping a course,” McKennis said, “I am feeling positive about the recovery ahead and confident in my experience coming back from injuries before that will make this journey easier. This injury is the least complex of all my previous injuries, which leaves me hopeful going into the 2018-19 season. Although I will miss much of the prep period, I am very, very experienced on what it takes to reach top form again and will be doing all I can to reach my best and build off my successes from the previous season.
“I want to give a special thank you to all those in Mammoth that were on the scene and those in the hospital for the wonderful support and care!”
McKennis is no stranger to fighting back from injury and finding success on the FIS Ski World Cup stage. After winning her first World Cup downhill – also her first ever podium – at St. Anton in Austria in 2013, she suffered a tibial plateau injury. That injury resulted in her shattering her right knee into 30 pieces, and was put back together again with 11 screws and a metal plate. She affectionately calls the 11-inch scar left from that injury “The Shark.” Five years after her first World Cup podium – and a lot of hard work, determination and grit – later she narrowly missed an Olympic medal, landing in fifth place at the Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.
At World Cup Finals in Are, Sweden in the final downhill of the 2018 season, McKennis soared from bib 23 to find the podium once again – landing in third place, just .28 off the pace set by teammate Lindsey Vonn (Vail, Colo.). McKennis is one of four American women to have scored a podium finish in women’s downhill during the 2018 season.
The U.S. women’s downhill team was the most successful downhill team on the women’s circuit this past season, and look forward to bringing that momentum into the 2019 season, highlighted by World Championships in Are, Sweden.