Snowboard: Kober again operated on, Olympic participation questionable

Snowboarder Amelie Kober has to postpone her comeback once again. The two-time Olympic medal winner was operated on last Friday after a training crash, as she announced on her Facebook page.

“Shit happens,” wrote the 2006 Olympic runners-up in 2006 and the 2014 Olympic third in 2014, but she did not mention a time for her return at first:”I don’t know what to do next, but it will continue.

Kober reported that during the operation,”unruly bone particles” in the left ankle joint were screwed or removed. The almost 30-year-old had missed the two last winters and had to undergo three knee operations during which time. It is her “greatest wish”, she now wrote,”to start again as soon as possible, even if this is currently unrealistic”.

Kober’s chances of taking part in the Olympics in February in Pyeongchang/South Korea are no longer there. Even after an early return, it would still have to meet the international and national qualification criteria. Only on Monday of last week, Kober had talked confidently about her comeback at the presentation of the German snowboarders in Munich, before a new setback followed shortly afterwards.

“I felt fit and had great pleasure in the first snow training sessions. I thought I was going to start the Olympic season with a super strong team,”she wrote on Facebook. The raceboarders start into the new World Cup season in mid-December.