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Olympics: Park City ski jumper Sarah Hendrickson holds out hope for Sochi
Park City’s Hendricksonis still recovering from a serious knee injury.
Park City • Sitting in her apartment over the summer, ski jumping sensation Sarah Hendrickson carefully eluded questions that presumed she already had secured a chance to compete for a historic gold medal at the upcoming Sochi Olympics in Russia.
"A lot of people say, ‘Of course you’re going to make the team,’ " she said at the time. "But anything can happen."
"A lot of people say, ‘Of course you’re going to make the team,’ " she said at the time. "But anything can happen."
Of course, anything did.
Just weeks later, the 19-year-old reigning world champion blew out her knee in a training crash in Germany, throwing into doubt her ability to recover in time for an Olympics that will feature her sport for the first time — after a long fight for inclusion led by Hendrickson’s older teammates, all from Park City.
Hendrickson still made an appearance at the U.S. Olympic Committee’s media summit just a few miles from her home on Tuesday to say she remains hopeful she can do it, but she did so while wearing a knee brace, walking with a cane and occasionally getting shuttled in a wheelchair, with just four months until the Olympics.
"My goal right now is, in January, I’ll be jumping," she said.
That would allow Hendrickson a chance to regain some form and confidence, maybe compete in a World Cup event or two.
But Hendrickson knows nothing is assured.
She knows there’s a chance her body won’t heal in time, despite spending six hours a day in physical therapy at the U.S. Ski Team’s Center of Excellence here after performing some 12,000 jumps in her life.
Her trajectory is frightfully close to mimicking that of fellow Utahn Noelle Pikus-Pace, the skeleton slider who was the reigning World Cup champion and gold-medal favorite before a runaway bobsled broke her leg.
Just weeks later, the 19-year-old reigning world champion blew out her knee in a training crash in Germany, throwing into doubt her ability to recover in time for an Olympics that will feature her sport for the first time — after a long fight for inclusion led by Hendrickson’s older teammates, all from Park City.
Hendrickson still made an appearance at the U.S. Olympic Committee’s media summit just a few miles from her home on Tuesday to say she remains hopeful she can do it, but she did so while wearing a knee brace, walking with a cane and occasionally getting shuttled in a wheelchair, with just four months until the Olympics.
"My goal right now is, in January, I’ll be jumping," she said.
That would allow Hendrickson a chance to regain some form and confidence, maybe compete in a World Cup event or two.
But Hendrickson knows nothing is assured.
She knows there’s a chance her body won’t heal in time, despite spending six hours a day in physical therapy at the U.S. Ski Team’s Center of Excellence here after performing some 12,000 jumps in her life.
Her trajectory is frightfully close to mimicking that of fellow Utahn Noelle Pikus-Pace, the skeleton slider who was the reigning World Cup champion and gold-medal favorite before a runaway bobsled broke her leg.
Source: sltrib.com
