Noah Hoffman back in US with broken Fibula

Mon, Dec  1, 2014 - By Mike Muha

A broken fibula is going to put a big crimp on Noah Hoffman 's World Cup seaon. Hoffman broke it on a a very familiar but fast downhill corner in the 15 kilometer classic individual start race in Kuusamo, Finland. Says Hoffman in his blog:

The corner that I crashed on is definitely challenging. It’s a sharp right hand bend at the bottom of a straight fast downhill. It’s blind so you can’t see where you’re going, and it gets really icy with lots of traffic; yesterday was no exception. All that being said, I’ve skied the corner dozens of times in the years I’ve been skiing in Kuusamo. It doesn’t scare me and it should not be that challenging for me. When I went down the hill on my third lap yesterday there wasn’t anybody around me. I wasn’t trying to be super aggressive; in fact, I maybe should have tried to carry more speed through it. I’m not sure exactly what happened. I slid on the ice, went into the snowy berm, lost control and slammed into the fence. The fence was made of alpine netting, but the bottom half of it was covered with some sort of solid paper or plastic. One of my skis snapped in half when it hit the fence and the other punched a whole in the solid material and went through the fence. I believe that my right ski was the one that snapped and my left ski was the one that went through the fence. I hurt my left knee and ankle as I kept sliding and my leg got torqued from the ski that was caught in the fence.

Hoffman is back in the US to recuperate...

Noah Hamilton loading into a ambulance with a broken fiblula (Photo: Liz Stephens)