Double World Cup winner, cruel diagnosis after falling in training: “I had suffered a concussion”

Lara Gut-Behrami suffered a serious fall during a training session on November 20 in Copper Mountain (Colorado), and the diagnosis established a week later was unequivocal: torn anterior cruciate ligament and medial lateral ligament, as well as a meniscal injury in the left knee. Gut-Behrami immediately announced that her season was over, and that she would undergo surgery these days.

The athlete spoke for the first time during an online conference organized by his sponsor. Although she had announced on June 26 that this season would be her last in the world circuit, the skier preferred to avoid the topic: “I love skiing, but my health comes firstshe stated.First I have to recover, and only when I'm fit again and able to make turns in the snow will I know what I'll do. I won't know until next year if I'll be racing again“, she specified, quoted by the Tribune de Geneve.

After this fall with serious consequences, a lot of patience was needed, explained the overall World Cup winner in 2016 and 2024.I was on the other side of the world and I had suffered a concussion. That's why I came back a little later than planned.” The return flight home came three days after this terrible incident, which marked the premature end of his season.

Lara Gut-Behrami: “I was hoping it was just a false alarm”

The athlete from Sorengo also returned to the waiting period between the fall and the diagnosis. She referred to last year, when she had already experienced pain in her left knee. “I hadn't fallen, but I still went to be examined,” she recalled. “At first, the results were not very clear and a doctor even diagnosed me with a cruciate ligament tear,” he added.

The skier with 48 World Cup victories then consulted other specialists. “Turns out it wasn't that serious. So I was hoping again that it was just a false alarm in the end“, he stated.

Lara Gut-Behrami, absent from the Olympic Games

Lara Gut-Behrami, winner of the Crystal Globe 2024 Photo: Instagram

“Then it was clear to me that I had to have further investigations in Switzerland, with specialists who know my knee,” she explained. On Wednesday, a new MRI made it possible to clearly establish the severity of the injury. “With a knee that has already been operated on, we are a little more cautious about the diagnosis than with a healthy knee,” Gut-Behrami pointed out. “That's why it took a little longer to announce the results“, she concluded.

The most painful consequence is that she has to give up the Olympic Games in Cortina (February 6 – 22, 2026), her big goal of the season. In 2025, he won the silver medal in the newly introduced team combined event, alongside Wendy Holdener. He has two world titles, both in 2021 in Cortina d'Ampezzo, in the Super-G and giant slalom, and an Olympic title in 2022 in Beijing in the Super-G plus silver and bronze medals at both the Olympics and the WC.