Aksel Lund Svindal, overall World Cup winner 2007 and 2009, Olympic champion and world champion, is planning his comeback in the Alpine Ski World Cup for Lake Louise, where he will compete on 25/26 March. A downhill run and a Super-G are scheduled for November 1. The Norwegian had to break off his season in January after another knee operation, the giant slalom on Sunday in Sölden is not an issue.
“It’s good, it’s much better than last year. I was able to ski much more in the preparation. And I think I’m much better prepared and able to drive to Lake Louise than I was last year,”said Svindal, who in January 2016 had suffered a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament and the meniscus in his right knee during a fall in the Kitzbühel descent. At the speed kick-off 2016/17 in Val d’ Isere in November, he was there again, before the next one and a half months later.
When you start skiing again, and then you do what’s worst for your knee: skiing. If you have a broken knee, skiing will never be the same again as before,”said the 34-year-old on Thursday at a media event of his ski company Head in Sölden.
“But I think I can do it well enough, and I’ve had the experience. The goal must be top three – whether it’s World Cup or Olympic Games. Of course luck is part of the game, but the speed must be high enough to win. I think I can do it. I hope so.” If things go according to plan, he’ll be competing in all the speed races before the Olympics, if he doesn’t, he’s going to make a move.”Logically, you’d better drive Olympia than Garmisch.”
Despite his many injuries over the course of his career, he feels like one who has been lucky “I had many of these injuries after I had already established myself. I had the ski company, the Olympiacenter in Oslo, I had so many people who helped me and wanted me to come back to racing,”explained Svindal.