BORMIO, Italy, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Bruised and swollen, Austria’s Daniel Hemetsberger was back on the Stelvio on Friday, a day after falling on its steep slopes ahead of the Milano Cortina Winter Games.
A swollen left eye, a nose he thinks is broken and a hurt leg meant the 34-year-old, preparing for his second Olympics, didn’t know how he would feel heading down on his final training run ahead of Saturday’s downhill race.
In the end, he finished second in a run that most skiers approached without much fervor.
“I had to push because I wanted to know how my body reacts and that was the mission and it was successful, so I'm happy at the moment,” Hemetsberger said.
This isn’t the first time the Austrian veteran has crashed on the Stelvio slope. In 2018 he lost his footing and tore his ACL there, the skier said.
When asked how he got over that he said, “I don't know, I'm a bit of a psychopath.”
“But I tried and I believed, and it was good enough,” he said after Friday’s run. He added that the possibility of him crashing today was “really high” because he wasn’t sure how his leg would feel.
Crossing the finish line, he lifted his fist in the air. “I was completely, completely satisfied that I'm at the finish,” he said.
He’s now confident that his legs will be good enough for Saturday’s intense downhill race, helping him mentally, too, “Tomorrow the mind would be better at the start,” he said after feeling unsure on Friday.
His left eye, which made the day “a bit more difficult” than other days, will likely still be swollen, however. “It's a bit of a problem because it's swollen under my eye, so my vision isn't that good on the left eye. The right is completely good,” he said.
The bruised and swollen appearance resembling that of a boxer garnered him his fair share of attention.
“Everyone who takes a look at me says 'Can I take a picture?'” he said.
His teeth - all those he has left after a career of racing - are still where they were before Thursday's crash.
"The teeth, they are not in my mouth. I lost them 10 years ago. Yesterday, all teeth were where they had to be. So I had, you know, braces. Yeah, I had something to protect my teeth yesterday."
(Reporting by Marleen Kaesebier in Bormio; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
