The Winter Olympics once again showed that Slovaks are proud fans of our athletes. During the ice hockey match on Wednesday, February 18, in which the Slovak national team fought to advance to the quarterfinals against Germany, a slalom was also held, in which skier Petra Vlhová presented herself after a two-year break. The Slovak hockey players performed beautifully and defeated the Germans 6:2. The performance of our best female skier was also brilliant.
In the Olympic slalom in Cortina d’Ampezzo, she took 20th place and especially in the second round she showed that she can keep up with her rivals. She showed the twelfth fastest time in it and moved nine places ahead.
She thoroughly enjoyed the feelings after arriving at the finish line, where her parents and many Slovak fans came to support her. No wonder, she hasn’t experienced them for a very long time. “They were amazing. I was really looking forward and I’m still looking forward to being here, that I came back after those two difficult years and I’m back. Now I just need to ski a lot, work hard and I believe it will go in the right direction.” she told TASR.
Thirty-year-old Vlhová returned to the slopes at the start of the Winter Olympics in Italy after a two-year break caused by a complicated knee injury and a long recovery. However, she did not finish the slalom as part of the team combination, when she got a spike in the middle of the track. After an eight-day break, which she filled with training and rest, she again stood on the Tofana slope.
In the opening round of the classic slalom, she did not do so well. Her ride lacked momentum and finished 2.86 seconds behind in 29th place. She admitted that at the start she felt the stress of getting to the finish line, which tied her legs a bit. “I was under stress, of course, and the conditions were a bit more demanding for me, so it was also connected that I also wanted to reach the finish line, and I didn’t complete my ride. Well, that’s what it’s about, the competitions are difficult and I need to ‘race’,” she said.
Vlhová finished just in the top 30, which guaranteed her the first place at the start in the 2nd round. She took advantage of the modified track and was able to move up to the 20th place. “The second round was much better, so I’m very happy about that. I didn’t forget to ski, so I relied on that. It was important for me to start, to be here and to bounce off something. So now I know roughly where I am and I know I have a lot of work to do“, she continued, saying that she has not yet revealed other plans for the season.
Everything will depend on the condition of the knee. After the Olympics, however, she will first allow herself to rest: “It was quite a burden, I was a little short of breath at the finish line. He’s holding the knee, but I can feel it. I will rest for the next two or three days and then it will pass. It will work, it just takes time, it takes a lot of patience and I believe in myself. VI think I still have it. But I haven’t skied in two years and I won’t catch up in a few months.”
The winner of the big crystal globe from 2021 returned to the competitive carousel after more than two years since the injury she suffered on January 20, 2024 during the domestic giant slalom in Jasná. After the fall, she had to undergo knee surgery, subsequent rehabilitation did not improve her condition enough to allow her to race again. She thus underwent another operation. She finally confirmed her desire to return to the Olympic slopes in January of this year, when doctors gave her the green light.
“It was great, it was great to experience those emotions again, to be at the finish line, to see all those people. To experience those feelings, that adrenaline, that stress. Now it’s something new for me because I’m in a completely different position than before. We are on the right track,” said Vlhová, who, in addition to her start, managed to watch at least a little of the hockey players who advanced to the medal fights and wished them much success.
On the social network, the well-known fitness expert Zora Czoborová sent a public message to our successful skier. The brunette captured Vlhová in the photo at the moment when she went slalom. “I’m so proud of you” wrote Czoborová and added a heart emoticon. Fitness didn’t forget hockey players either. “Great,” she commented on the 5:2 situation seven minutes before the end of the last period. You can find a PHOTO of the posts in the gallery.
Czoborová knows very well what it is like to return to sports after health problems. In December 2023, she underwent a serious operation. Doctors replaced both of her knee joints at the same time. As an 18-year-old, she crashed into a truck on a motorcycle. She spent three months in the hospital. After the accident, she had serious consequences and over time they only got worse until she was rushed to the operating room.
Now he knows what it’s like to live without pain. “Living without pain is possible. I am proof of that. And when, after years of suffering, you move without pain, you realize that you did the right thing and gave yourself the most precious gift – the freedom to live fully,” she wrote on a social network two years after the operation.
