Alpine skiing-Norway's injured Kilde to miss Games

BORMIO, Italy, Feb 3 - Norway's Aleksander Aamodt Kilde will miss the Milano-Cortina Olympics after failing to recover full fitness following a back injury, the 33-year-old said on Tuesday.

He had returned to the World Cup this season after missing the previous one following a serious injury, but has run out of time in trying to get back up to speed.

"With the sudden jump in full-speed training, my body has needed more time than my mind would like," he said in a statement posted on Instagram.

"That's led to the back issues that kept me out of Kitzbuehel and made racing in Crans-Montana anything but easy. "Because of that, I've decided to end my season earlier than planned."

Kilde won a bronze medal in super-G at the 2022 Beijing Games but sustained serious injuries to his shoulder and leg, as well as a subsequent infection, after he crashed in Wengen, Switzerland in January 2024 during a downhill race.

He missed the whole of last season, undergoing five operations, but returned to the World Cup in November at Copper Mountain, Colorado. He was forced out of the Kitzbuehel downhill, though, because of back problems.

His best finish this season was 11th in the downhill at Beaver Creek.

Kilde, whose fiancee is American slalom great Mikaela Shiffrin, said the decision had been difficult.

"I have done everything in my power to be able to participate in the Olympics, but my body and mind are not ready," he said.

"Returning to the World Cup this season already means more to me than I could have imagined a year ago. Just making it back was a victory I'll always be proud of."

Kilde won the World Cup downhill title in 2022 and 2023 and was overall World Cup champion in 2020. REUTERS