World Cup ski champ Federica Brignone breaks leg in crash at Italian championships | CBC Sports

It was meant to be a celebratory final week of competition in the best season of her career.

The celebrations ended abruptly for freshly crowned overall World Cup skiing champion Federica Brignone when she broke multiple bones in her left leg during a giant slalom crash at the Italian championships on Thursday, 10 months before a home Olympics in Milan-Cortina.

Brignone was the race leader at the Lusia ski area in Val di Fassa but in her second run she crashed through a gate and lost control, prompting her to tumble and crash through the next gate. She was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Trento.

Brignone was diagnosed with multiple fractures in her tibial plateau and fibula bone, the Italian Winter Sports Federation said. It added she would be moved to a hospital in Milan “for the completion of X-ray exams and to establish a timeline for surgery.”

Brignone, who also won the giant slalom at the world championships in February, was finishing up the best season of her career. She won 10 World Cup races across three different disciplines (five giant slaloms, three super-Gs and two downhills) this season.

One of those World Cup wins came in a super-G on the Olympia delle Tofane course in Cortina d’Ampezzo that will host Olympic women’s skiing next February, her first career victory at the venue.

Brignone is expected to be one of the home stars of the Milan-Cortina Games. But the 34-year-old Italian faces a race just to recover in time.

It was still too early to place a timetable on when or if Brignone might return. This season she became the oldest woman to win a World Cup race.

WATCH | Brignone adds GS season title to overall and downhill crowns: