Swiss skier Marco Kohler (28) will miss the rest of the Olympic season with a cruciate ligament rupture. This is the third time that the Bernese skier has seriously injured his knee.
As Swiss-Ski writes in a press release, Marco Kohler seriously injured his knee during the downhill in Kitzbühel. Examinations at the Hirslanden Clinic in Zurich have revealed a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament. The 28-year-old will undergo surgery on his right knee in the coming days. He will also use the time-out phase to have a second operation to repair an old injury to his other knee.
Kohler will also miss the Olympic Games in Milan/Cortina due to the injury. The Bernese racer fulfilled the selection criteria in the downhill thanks to 11th place in Val Gardena/Gröden and 13th place in Wengen. Kohler also finished 11th in the super-G in Livigno.
Incredibly bad luck with injuries
This is Marco Kohler's third serious knee injury. In 2020, he crashed heavily as the lead skier in the first training run of the Wengen downhill shortly before the finish and tore the cruciate ligament, patellar tendon and inner ligament in his left knee.
Kohler fought his way back and made his breakthrough in the winter of 2023/24 when he finished 8th in Val Gardena/Gröden and 10th in Bormio. Shortly afterwards, he crashed heavily again in Wengen and suffered a torn cruciate ligament and meniscus.
Kohler once again managed to establish himself in the World Cup, scoring World Cup points seven times this season and dreaming of the Olympics. During the downhill in Kitzbühel, Kohler came off the piste shortly before the finish. Although the 28-year-old did not crash, he tore his cruciate ligament and will have to take another long break.
Kohler wrote on Instagram that the diagnosis had hit him hard both physically and mentally. The road back will not be an easy one, but giving up was never an option: "Setbacks don't define me, how I reacted to them does."
