DSV has lost another medal for the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang with freestyler Lisa Zimmermann,”Your management has informed us that she is not participating in the qualifying competitions and therefore does not meet the requirements for the Olympics. This is the end of the story for us,”DSV Alpine Director Wolfgang Maier told SID.
In 2015, the 21-year-old Zimmermann became world champion in the discipline slopestyle, and in 2017 she won in the Big Air at the renowned X-Games. Last February, she had suffered a cruciate ligament rupture and had decided against the advice of the DSV against an operation.
Lastly, she had hoped to participate in the Olympics herself. Nevertheless, she decided to forego the two World Cups on Saturday in Aspen Snowmass and on 20. January in Mammoth Mountain – there she would have had the last two chances for the Olympic ticket.
“You don’t have to shake gold out of your sleeves,”said Maier,”she would have been an extremely valuable athlete for us in Pyeongchang, especially in the freestyle area.”
There the DSV, which also has to do without the ski racers Felix Neureuther and Stefan Luitz in South Korea, only has realistic chances for precious metal next to Zimmermann by Heidi Zacher in cross-country skiing.
Zimmermann, who trains independently and is regarded as a freethinker, and the association repeatedly disagreed on the question of the treatment of injury.
“We would have liked to have had our expertise in the field of cruciate ligament injuries at her disposal and had put together a programme tailored to her, but she did not want to do that,”said Maier.