ACL tear will keep Kearney out of freestyle worlds

Moguls world champion Hannah Kearney of the U.S. Ski Team is resting at home following Feb. 21 surgery on a torn anterior cruciate ligament. She won't get to defend her world championship when the 2007 FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships are held March 6-11 in Madonna di Campiglio, Italy.
NORWICH, Vermont — Moguls world champion Hannah Kearney of the U.S. Ski Team is resting at home following Feb. 21 surgery on a torn anterior cruciate ligament. She won't get to defend her world championship when the 2007 FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships are held March 6-11 in Madonna di Campiglio, Italy.
    Kearney, who turned 21 on Monday, was operated on by Dr. Charles Carr at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Hanover, New Hampshire, after injuring her knee during training Feb. 5 before finals at a World Cup in La Plagne, France.
    "I didn't think it was that bad but I guess I was in denial. I mean, I didn't even fall, didn't crash," Kearney said. "I was skiing in the middle of the course and I jammed my knee. I hyperextended it."
    The injury was "a clean [injury], so I'm lucky that way," she said. She is beginning physical therapy and rehabilitation, and has no timetable for getting back on skis.
    Kearney, who swept the moguls and dual moguls titles last March during the Sprint U.S. Freestyle Championships at Vermont's Killington resort, said she plans on attending the 2007 championships at Killington next month. Killington is about an hour from Norwich.