Joy and sorrow are often close together in sports. The Swiss ladies are working hard on their comebacks. Some of them, having had to be contend watching their teammates on TV after they got injured in the season, are now getting ready for the new 2010/2011 season thanks to a lot of will power and discipline. They are working hard on their comeback.
Read more below:
Lara Gut, the young skier from the Ticino, dislocated her hip in the Saas Fee training camp in September 2009 and thus spent the past season doing physical therapy instead of World Cup races. But in addition to the rehabilitation, Lara also learned diligently for school and created her own brand along the way. Meanwhile, the 19-year-old is already back training properly and knows exactly where she wants to end up next winter: "Where I was two years ago."
Sandra Gini tore her cruciate ligament back in November 2009 at the World Cup in Aspen. The skier from Grisons had just recovered from a previous knee injury when she got hurt once again. Sandra went through a difficult time during the first seven weeks after the accident when she could only walk on crutches, a time that was a real test of her patience as she spent much time at home for physiotherapy and rehabilitation. In June, the 28-year-old was allowed to train again and reunite with her teammates in Magglingen. The upcoming weeks will show whether Sandra is ready to stand on skis again.
In the time after the surgery on her torn ligament in January 2010, Fränzi Aufdenblatten enjoyed the regularity in her life and to have the weekends off for leisure activities. Since then, things have changed quite a bit and she participates again with the other teammates in the conditioning and training camps. "I'll try to be on skis again in August," the 29-year-old reveals. "But at the beginning I will still not participate in any real training, but free ski for one or two hours instead, so that my knees get used to the force and impact put on them during ski racing. My goal is to be fit enough by mid-November to be able to fly to Canada with my teammates. Then the chances were intact that I could also stand at the start in Lake Louise." Fränzi Aufdenblatten remains modest as she knows it will probably take her close to an year to be back where she was before her injury - namely on the podium.
