Gail Kelly’s ski season, and any hope of qualifying for the Torino Olympics, ended last week when the Canadian Alpine Ski Team member sustained a torn ACL while downhill training in Chile.
The 25 year old, from Ste-Anges de Beauce, Quebec, injured her right knee after a bad landing coming off a jump on Aug. 25. She underwent reconstructive ligament surgery on Monday in Canada.
"The difficult road to Gail’s recovery begins right now," said team physiotherapist Kent Kobelka. "The surgery went very well and she is expected to make a full recovery. We expect about a six-month rehabilitation period, and unfortunately it looks like her season is over."
Kelly, a six-year veteran of the Canadian team, had met half of the Olympic qualifying criteria with an 11 th place finish in a World Cup giant slalom at Soelden, Austria last October.
Prior to sustaining this knee injury, Kelly had been sidelined by a concussion in 1999 that kept her out of racing until 2001. Since then, she had made a successful return to the World Cup circuit, closing the 2004-2005 season ranked 19th in the world in giant slalom.
