People's Daily Online, March 6 (Wen Jing) — On March 6, 2014, the Russian Freestyle Skiing Federation announced that Yulia Komissarova, the female athlete from Russia who was seriously injured during the Sochi Winter Olympics, will be permanently paralyzed. This is the most severe accident to date at the Games.
Background
The 23-year-old Komissarova was participating in an adaptive training session at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park in Sochi on February 15 when she suffered a serious fall while attempting a jump over a slope obstacle. She was rushed to the hospital for surgery. The Russian Freestyle Skiing Federation later announced that Komissarova would withdraw from the Sochi Winter Olympics.
Rosa Khutor Extreme Park served as the competition venue for freestyle skiing and snowboarding events at the Sochi Winter Olympics. Due to the challenging design of the course and the soft snow conditions caused by several days of high temperatures in Sochi, several athletes have been injured or forced to withdraw during training. These include Norwegian snowboarding star Torstein Horgmo, American freestyle skier Heidi Kloser, and Japanese-Canadian freestyle skier Yuki Tsubota, who sustained serious injuries during the event. Prominent athletes, including American snowboarding legend Shaun White, have also raised concerns about the course.