Slovak skier Petra On Tuesday, for the first time since her fall in the giant slalom in Jasná on January 20, 2024, Vlhová will compete on the slopes and directly at the Olympics. The 30-year-old competitor is making her first start in the team combination and she especially wants to enjoy it. “After everything I’ve experienced in two years, it’s a victory for me to be able to be at the Olympics,” she said on the stage in Cortina d’Ampezzo.
Vlhová definitely confirmed that she will start at the 2026 Olympics on Saturday evening. In Tuesday’s team competition, he wants to try the slopes of Tofan, where eight days later he will also start in the slalom. In it, four years ago, she won gold at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, but after a two-year competition break, she does not set performance goals and does not talk about defense.
The 30-year-old skier already confirmed at the end of January that after a two-year break due to a knee injury, she received the green light from the doctors for full skiing. She expressed her desire to compete at the Olympics in Italy, but everything depended on whether she would have time to prepare for the start of the Olympic race. “Honestly, the decision was difficult. Until the end of December, the beginning of January, it looked like I wouldn’t go at all. Then there was such a big jump that my knee gave way and I started riding. Only then did the thought come that it might work out.” she told journalists on Monday at a short press conference in the hotel where the team of Slovak alpine skiers is staying.
During the entire period, Vlhová constantly communicated with the entire team, but revealed that she made the final decision herself: “It was a tough and thorough decision. At the end of the day, it was about me. I told the team I was going to do it. I stood by it and I’m happy I did.”
The six-time World Championship medalist (1-4-1) returned to training on the slopes last October after a long recovery caused by knee surgery. She suffered the injury in the domestic giant slalom in Jasná in January 2024, when she fell and had to undergo surgery.
After subsequent rehabilitation, her condition did not improve enough to allow her to race again, so she underwent a second medical procedure. The knee is holding up now, but it’s still not 100 percent fine. “The knee is great, but I can feel it and there is a certain limitation that I can’t handle such a load yet. If I push it one day, then the next day I feel it and it won’t let me do another load. That’s why I need a lot of rest.” she revealed.
In October, her team said she needed at least 50 workouts to get back to the form she was in two years ago. She’s done about 40 days on the snow so far: “So we’re very, very far from being in the best shape. We have to be realistic, not competing for two years is not just coming to a race and winning. Even if it was amazing.”
The amount of work on the snow limits the load on the problematic joint. While before the injury she completed six to eight runs in one day in training, now it is only two. “The program is completely different than before. I was used to training every day. Now I have to listen to the knee, the knee is the boss. At the turn of the year, they didn’t even let me in the gates. It was a very difficult period, it was difficult to accept and I had to be patient, endure and trust the process. I still need a lot of kilometers, but I’m determined to fight and I’m happy to be here,” she said.
The 2020/2021 Grand Crystal Globe winner said that if she still felt pain, she would not risk a return: “I’m not in pain. If I knew I wouldn’t be able to complete one slalom, it would be pointless. After those two years, I already wanted to be at the race, I wanted to come back and I didn’t want to wait anymore.” After her definitive announcement that she would start at the Olympic Games, there were many positive reactions, one of the first congratulators under the statement on social networks was her great rival Mikaela Shiffrinová: “I didn’t expect so many positive reactions. It’s very nice.”
She will return in Tuesday’s team combination, in which she will go together with Katarína Šrobová, who will complete the initial downhill section. “Because it was possible to go a combination on the same hill, we wanted to try it and test it. At the same time, to beat the first start, because it is after two years that I am looking forward to it, but I will not lie, I also feel stress. I wanted to do a warm-up before the slalom.” Vlhová explained why she decided on two starts.
She took two days off before Tuesday to rest her knee. “When it’s tired, I can’t make the arc that I used to. It loses the technique. I accept it and it’s about finding a path that works for me. That knee is different and it won’t be the same. I need time for that.” added.
