Young Croatian skier Leona Popović will not have fond memories of her first performance at the Winter Olympics, after she suffered a heavy knee injury after a fall on Thursday.
Shortly after the fall, magnetic resonance established a complete rupture of the front cruciate ligament and partial rupture of the medial collateral ligament, with Popović stating after the examination that recovery after surgery is expected to take from 5 to 6 months. A type of injury any athlete is afraid of, as Večernji List reported on February 15, 2018.
Popović is now the second Croatian skier to be injured in Pyeongchang, with young Lana Zbašnik suffering a knee injury in practice.
The remaining two Croatian representatives, Andrea Komić (21) and Ida Štimac (17), took 32nd and 34th place, with the gold in the hands of American Mikaela Shiffrin. Popović is currently the best Croatian skier, previously the winner of the Youth Olympic Games. A year ago she won her first points in the World Cup, placing 18th in Super G in Crans Montana.
Here is the footage of her fall at the Olympics:
Translated from Večernji List.
