Nyman headed to Norway with balky back

By Published On: March 6th, 2007Comments Off on Nyman headed to Norway with balky back

U.S. Ski Teamer Steven Nyman said a series of homeopathic injections by a doctor in Germany have helped reduce the pain caused by three compressed discs in his back, an injury Nyman said he hopes won’t significantly limit his racing this weekend in three World Cup races in Kvitfjell, Norway.
    The men’s schedule includes a super combi on Friday followed by a downhill on Saturday and a super G on Sunday.
    “One’s pretty bad, two are OK,” Nyman said, adding that the doctor he saw in Munich said the “bad” disc was close to becoming herniated and further irritating nerve endings in the spine. “I think it’s just due to overskiing. I’ve gotten pain ever since the super combi at worlds, and it’s gotten worse and worse.”
U.S. SKI TEAMER Steven Nyman said a series of homeopathic injections by a doctor in Germany have helped reduce the pain caused by three compressed discs in his back, an injury Nyman said he hopes won’t significantly limit his racing this weekend in three World Cup races in Kvitfjell, Norway.
    The men’s schedule includes a super combi on Friday followed by a downhill on Saturday and a super G on Sunday.
    “One’s pretty bad, two are OK,” Nyman said, adding that the doctor he saw in Munich said the “bad” disc was close to becoming herniated and further irritating nerve endings in the spine. “I think it’s just due to overskiing. I’ve gotten pain ever since the super combi at worlds, and it’s gotten worse and worse.”
    Nyman has run three races since that super combi in Sweden — the downhill at worlds and a pair of downhills in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, on Feb. 23-24.
    “After Garmisch, I went and trained, and during training I was just like, ‘I can’t do this,’” Nyman said.
    Nyman said he skied nine or 10 straight days at the World Championships, including an epic powder day early on with Julia Mancuso. When he wasn’t racing, Nyman said he was training downhill in the mornings and slalom in the afternoon.
    “The snow was aggressive … I felt pretty good but I just totally overdid it,” he said. A trip back to the States between the World Championships and the Garmisch stop offered Nyman the chance to relax a bit, but he still skied and rock climbed, saying he “felt obligated to play at home while I could.”
    “I’ve crashed three times this year and I think it’s a big conglomeration of all that. This whole back problem is from all that, just a bunch of wear and tear,” he said.
    Nyman said he planned on receiving a few more injections early Monday before the team headed north to Kvitfjell, a venue Nyman’s never raced at previously. He’s having a breakout season in what amounts to his second full campaign on the World Cup. He’s 10th in the downhill standings with a victory at Val Gardena in mid-December, 18th in super G and 19th in combined.
    “I want to end on a good note, that’s the main thing,” he said. “I started off well, and I’ve had some glimpses of greatness. Worlds was great, I was actually skiing very, very well there. And in all the races I was skiing well, had good fast splits, but nothing that consistent like it was in the beginning of the year. I had a few mistakes in there.
    “I just want to put one or two more together the end of the year. It would be great for me. Hopefully I can do that.”

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About the Author: Pete Rugh