Belle Brockhoff is “in good spirits” in a Greek hospital after a horror crash at a Snowboard Cross World Cup race in Georgia over the weekend left her with a serious back injury.
The 32-year-old, who has represented Australia at three Winter Olympics, was airlifted off the slopes of Gudauri after tumbling at relatively high speed on her last race of the day and landing on her coccyx on Saturday.
Brockhoff was taken to a hospital in Tbilisi where scans revealed a fracture of the L1 vertebrae, with no neurological damage.
She was then evacuated to Greece to undergo surgery. A member of the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia medical team has joined her in Greece, while her partner has also flown out to be with her.
Olympic Winter Institute of Australia CEO Geoff Lipshut said: “Currently our medical team are working with the medical emergency service personnel and the hospital in Greece to ensure that Belle receives the best care possible.”
“We will reassess options together with Belle following surgery over the next 48 hours,” Lipshut said. “Belle is in good spirits, and I am very pleased that her partner has been able to fly to Greece to support her during this time.”
Brockhoff had only recently returned to the World Cup circuit after undergoing two surgeries on a compound fracture in her arm last November.
Gudauri was the seventh stop of the World Cup season, while the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina are less than 12 months away.
Brockhoff made her Olympic debut at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi and has since represented Australia at PyeongChang 2018 and Beijing 2022.
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She finished fourth in the women’s snowboard cross final at the last Olympics but was later hospitalised after crashing during the heats of the mixed snowboard cross team race in Beijing and received treatment for a sore neck.
The Victorian snowboarder had earlier contested her second Olympics without an ACL, finishing 11th in the women’s snowboard cross final in South Korea less than two months after undergoing knee surgery.
Brockhoff won the snowboard cross mixed teams world championship alongside Jarryd Hughes in 2021 and has 17 World Cup medals across her career.