Erik Schlopy on his rehab, his future plans and watching his injury on video

By Published On: June 7th, 2004Comments Off on Erik Schlopy on his rehab, his future plans and watching his injury on video

Erik Schlopy on his rehab, his future plans and watching his injury on video{mosimage}Erik Schlopy, one of the U.S. Ski Team’s top veteran athletes, blew his knee out in the America’s Opening giant slalom World Cup in November.

The pain of Schlopy’s injury was enhanced by the fact that the Vermont-native (who now lives in Park City, Utah) was poised for a great season, having performed well in training runs all fall.

Schlopy appeared in Europe last week at the World Cup speed races at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. That’s where Ski Racing spoke with him about his injury, the last few months, and his plans for the future.

Ski Racing: Heard you’ve done some television work?
Erik Schlopy: Yeah, it was my first time doing something like that. Did it with Nick Fellows, who has been one of my favorite commentators over the year. It was fun, doing it live. I was actually a little nervous, but it ended up just being like normal talking like I was at home.

SR: How’s the knee?
ES: Knee’s coming along fine. Actually just hiked up the hill. That was a pretty big endeavor for me. My knee never hurts. It’s just the hamstring muscles getting re-awakened. The muscles are a little tight and a little weaker.

SR: What kind of rehab have you been doing?
ES: Mainly water training and pool therapy. In Park City and in Salt Lake at TOSH, and then I was working with Bill Knowles at Killington. I went there for a week. That was good.

SR: Do you have an idea when you’ll be back on snow?
ES: Probably at the earliest April, and at the latest May.

SR: Did you watch video of the crash?
ES: Yeah, I just started watching video of it last week. I hadn’t seen it until then. Now I’ve seen it a couple times. I was skiing well until I fell. I really believe that between Bode and me we had the fastest GS skiers in the world. I feel good and remember how I skied so I think I can bring it back next year and ski just as well and be right at the top again.

SR: But what was it like watching the crash that ended your season?
ES: It’s definitely not new to watch myself crash. I’ve seen it before. It was more of an analysis of how it happened, maybe why it happened. I want to avoid anything like that in the future. Obviously with skiing there’s risks that you take that you never can eliminate, but for me, I just enjoyed watching myself ski well before the crash more than anything else…What happened was I hit a hole, and my inside leg bent down so far that my outside leg actually relaxed. None of the muscles were engaged and protecting my knee. When the ski hooked back up, the hamstring wasn’t engaged. That’s why it happened so fast. The knee was able to snap.

SR: You had planned on bringing super G into your program. Are you scrapping those plans?
ES: No, definitely not. Fully committed to bringing super G back. I feel like it could be my best event in any day, any given race.

SR: Any projects underway? Things you couldn’t do before that you have time for now?
ES: Working on my house. Getting my life back in order since I moved back to Park City in August. I haven’t lived in one place for more than eight months in the last six years. So my life is just a little discombobulated. I want to start next year feeling like everything is totally organized. So I can just concentrate on skiing.

Share This Article

About the Author: Pete Rugh