For Wendy Holdener, her evening in Courchevel commenced with a slalom run, a moment of triumph as she crossed the finish line, only to be followed by a harrowing and disorienting fall into the darkness. After completing her initial run, the Swiss veteran encountered a bump in the snow, resulting in a loss of control that propelled her into a dramatic somersault before she collided at high speed with the padded advertising boards.

Following a tense pause as she lay confused on the snow, the 32-year-old, a five-time Olympic medalist boasting 54 World Cup podium finishes, managed to regain her footing and walk away, visibly shaken yet resolute. However, as reported by Blue News, the Swiss skier experienced a gamut of emotions, which she later discussed.

“It was a rollercoaster ride,” Holdener said. “Sometimes you had the feeling you were okay and it was nothing. But then tears just came again because you’re still processing it. The somersault didn’t have to be. It was a difficult preparation for the second run.”

Such resolve would come to characterize her evening. In the face of a jarring impact that resulted in a strained neck and a sore knee, Holdener resolutely made her way back to the start gate for the second run.

Thanks to the support of physiotherapists who, as she described, “nursed me up,” she not only took to the competition but also enhanced her standing, ultimately securing an impressive seventh place in the night slalom. Holdener’s crash and her honest discussion of its afterffects strike a chord within a Swiss women’s team grappling with a harsh run of injuries.

Caution prior to the 2026 Winter Olympics

The Swiss women’s Alpine team is grappling with an injury crisis that has severely impacted their roster, just months ahead of the Milano-Cortina Games.

In a troubling turn of events, two-time gold medalist Michelle Gisin was airlifted from a training run in St. Moritz, where she was clocked at speeds exceeding 110 kmph (approximately 69 mph).

The incident has resulted in her undergoing surgeries for injuries to her cervical spine, wrist, and knee. The team’s super-G standout, Lara Gut-Behrami, dealt a significant blow with a season-ending knee injury, while downhill champion Corinne Suter found herself on the sidelines as well, grappling with a muscle injury and knee contusion.

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The current crisis can be traced back to the preseason, during which Wendy Holdener faced her own challenges, fracturing both wrists in a training accident and later sustaining a fracture of the right fibula in a separate incident during summer slalom training.

The cumulative impact has left a severely diminished squad heading into the 2026 Winter Olympics, lacking many of its most prominent stars, marking a stark contrast to a nation that once reigned supreme on the podium in Beijing 2022 with 22 skiing medals.