Season ends early for Tina Weirather

Tina Weirather at the Sochi Olympics (GEPA/Mario Kneisl)

After suffering a lower leg injury in a Feb. 9 crash during downhill training at the Sochi Olympic Winter Games, Liechtenstein’s Tina Weirather, currently ranked second overall and 136 points off leader Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany in the hunt for the World Cup title, had had to end her season prematurely with nine races left to go on the calendar.

Weirather was unable to start in the Olympic downhill, super G, or giant slalom races, and she left the Games and traveled to Dubai in an effort to heal from a bone contusion in her right leg.

“I thought it makes my rehab time easier to be somewhere warm, far away. So I’m sitting in Dubai, but it doesn’t feel right,” Weirather posted on social media. “It will take more than that to forget that I didn’t get the chance to race the most important races in four years.”

Although a photo from Feb. 23 shows Weirather in a tuck position in the gym, she was unable to heal from the tibial contusion in her right leg in time to compete in Crans-Montana, Switzerland this week. The website Skionline.ch was the first to report that Weirather has opted to end her season early given the delay in recovery from her latest injury.

Weirather also sits second in the downhill and super G standings and is third in the giant slalom standings for the 2013-14 season. Her early departure from the World Cup circuit lightens the pressure on Hoefl-Riesch for the overall and downhill titles and cushions Lara Gut’s lead in super G standings.