Skicrosser Fiva reports back after torn cruciate ligament: “That was the toughest winter of my life”

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How much bad luck can you actually have? That’s what the Swiss ski cross team must have wondered last December. Within a week, three athletes suffered cruciate ligament tears. After almost a year of rehabilitation, Alex Fiva (37), Ryan Regez (30) and Luca Lubasch (28) are now back on skis and ready for the new season. Although the three suffered the same fate last winter, their path back to the slopes was different.

“Ryan, Luca and I have undergone three different operations, each involving a different transplant to repair the cruciate ligament,” Fiva explains. Everything turned out well for everyone, all three of them have been training in Saas-Fee USA in recent weeks. But of course we always compared. “We were in touch often. Asked when someone would get off crutches, how well walking and bending worked, and so on.” It wasn’t a competition, but it was exciting to see how the other two fared.

The family keeps him busy

Due to the busy rehabilitation, there was not much time to argue with fate. Fiva: “Immediately after the accident I was already depressed. I wanted to defend my world title this season.” But the cloudy thoughts soon had to give way. “There was always action going on at home with the family, so I didn’t have time to think.”

And although the Graubünden resident only rode one race last winter, he says with a smile. “That was the hardest winter of my life. Now I have seen what my wife does when I am not there.” His two children kept him on his toes: “Especially when they noticed how funny it was when they hid my crutches,” says Fiva. And jokingly adds: “That alone was motivation enough to get off the crutches as quickly as possible.”

In July, seven months after the operation, he was back on skis for the first time. That was amazing. He also took part in Nati’s training camp in Chile and had a good feeling in his knee.

Now that the new season is just around the corner, it starts again on December 7 in Val Thorens, France. What awaits Fiva, the world champion and Olympic silver medalist in 2021? Hard to estimate. “A cruciate ligament tear is a serious injury. I have to give myself a few races, maybe even a whole season. During training, everything feels like it did before the accident. But in competition the driving is completely different.”

Fiva doesn’t want to set a goal. First, trust must return.

Source : Blick