Norwegian ski star Aleksander Aamodt Kilde will miss the entire 2024-25 season because his injured left shoulder requires surgery again, nine months after he crashed badly in a downhill in Switzerland.
“I now need another surgery to fully fix the shoulder. This unfortunately means I won’t be competing this winter,” Kilde said in a statement from the Norwegian ski federation Wednesday.
The 32-year-old Kilde, a two-time Olympic medalist who has won 21 World Cup races and took the 2019-20 overall title, had surgery to repair a severe cut and nerve damage in his right calf, plus two torn ligaments in his shoulder, after a terrifying crash near the finish of a downhill in Wengen in January.
Kilde went back on skis in June, but his recovery suffered a setback the following month due to an infection in his shoulder "that caused some complications,” he said.
“There was a big infection in my shoulder that had gone pretty far and I needed to undergo surgery for that,” Kilde said in a video on his Instagram account.
“It was mentally tough, not just because it then takes longer for me to go back skiing,," he said, "but also I was asking myself: ‘Am I going to be able to really use my shoulder ever again?’"
Currently, he added, "two of the muscles are still not attached at this moment, which means I need to do another surgery and reconstruct everything again.”
Kilde was among a slew of World Cup, Olympic and world champions to crash hard in a packed mid-season program, including his fiancée Mikaela Shiffrin.
The American hurt her left knee following a crash on the 2026 Olympic downhill course in Cortina d'Ampezzo, though the World Cup record holder and two-time Olympic champion returned to racing six weeks later.
“We can be going through completely different experiences, and still be able to actually support each other,” Shiffrin said in an online media call Wednesday. “This season, we are going to take it all as it comes, because we can do that with each other.”
The Norwegian ski team's doctor, Trond Floberghagen, expected Kilde to return racing in the 2025-26 Olympic season.
“Unfortunately, neither the medical situation nor the timeline is compatible with an active season this winter,” Floberghagen said.
“After a challenging injury break, Aleksander is now well-prepared and motivated for a new rehabilitation process, and we expect him to be back at the starting line next season.”
Kilde added: "I’m fully committed to my rehab and working towards a strong comeback.”
Many racers commented to Kilde's video on Instagram with messages of encouragement.
Three-time overall World Cup champion Marco Odermatt wrote, “we need you, keep going." American great Lindsey Vonn said, “One more surgery, keep fighting! You’ll be back” and Olympic slalom champion Clement Noel posted, “Keep fighting Aleks!"
The World Cup season starts this weekend with two giant slaloms in Soelden, Austria, with the women racing on Saturday and the men the following day.
The season also includes the world championships in Austria in February.
AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing
FILE - Norway's Aleksander Aamodt Kilde is attended after falling during an alpine ski, men's World Cup downhill race, in Wengen, Switzerland, Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandro Trovati, File)
FILE - Norway's Aleksander Aamodt Kilde celebrates on the podium after taking second place in an alpine ski, men's World Cup giant slalom race, in Adelboden, Switzerland, Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Giovanni Auletta, File)
FILE - Norway's Aleksander Aamodt Kilde falls during an alpine ski, men's World Cup downhill race, in Wengen, Switzerland, Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandro Trovati, File)
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Attackers set off explosives and opened fire Wednesday at Turkey's state-run aerospace and defense company TUSAS, killing five people and wounding more than a dozen, the interior minister said.
The two attackers — a man and a woman — also were killed, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said.
Yerlikaya said the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, is suspected of being behind the attack but cautioned that the process of identifying the assailants continued. Defense Minister Yasar Guler also pointed the finger at the PKK.
“We give these PKK scoundrels the punishment they deserve every time. But they never come to their senses,” Guler said. “We will pursue them until the last terrorist is eliminated.”
The Islamic State group and leftist extremists have also carried out past attacks in Turkey.
"I condemn this heinous terrorist attack,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of a BRICS meeting in Russia.
Putin offered condolences. A U.S. Embassy statement said Washington “strongly condemns today’s terrorist attack."
TUSAS designs, manufactures and assembles civilian and military aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles and other defense industry and space systems. Its UAVs have been instrumental in Turkey gaining an upper hand in its fight against Kurdish militants both on its own territory and across the border in Iraq.
The attack occurred a day after the leader of Turkey’s far-right nationalist party that's allied with Erdogan raised the possibility that the PKK's imprisoned leader could be granted parole if he renounces violence and disbands his organization.
Abdullah Ocalan's group has been fighting for autonomy in southeast Turkey in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people since the 1980s. It is considered a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies.
The country's pro-Kurdish political party, which also condemned the attack, noted that it had occurred at a time when the possibility of a dialogue to end the conflict had emerged.
Turkish media said the assailants arrived Wednesday at an entry to the TUSAS complex in a taxi. The assailants, carrying assault weapons, detonated an explosive device next to the taxi, causing panic and allowing them to enter.
The taxi driver was among the dead, according to HaberTurk television.
An unidenfied TUSAS employee shouted: “We will work harder and produce more in defiance of the traitors” as he and other colleagues were being evacuated from the premises, according to a video aired by HaberTurk.
Security camera images, aired on television, showed a man in plainclothes carrying a backpack and holding an assault rifle.
The interior minister said security teams were dispatched as soon as the attack started at around 3:30 p.m.
Multiple gunshots were heard after security forces entered the site, the DHA news agency and other media reported. Helicopters were seen flying above the premises.
Authorities issued a temporary blackout on the coverage of the attack and went on to throttle access to social media websites.
Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz said the target of the attack was Turkey's “success in the defense industry.”
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the terrorist attack, saying the United Nations “stands in solidarity” with the people and government of Turkey, according to U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis also denounced the attack. "Our thoughts and heartfelt condolences go out to the families of the victims,” he said on X.
Associated Press writer Robert Badendieck in Hamburg, Germany, contributed.
People gather outside of the Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. on the outskirts of Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (Yavuz Ozden/Dia Photo via AP)
People gather outside of Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. at the outskirts of Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Mert Gokhan Koc)
Emergency and security teams are deployed outside the Turkish state-run aerospace and defense company Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. on the outskirts of Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (Yavuz Ozden/Dia Photo via AP)
Smoke raises as emergency rescue teams and police officers attend outside Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. on the outskirts of Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (IHA via AP)
Emergency rescue teams and police officers work outside of Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. on the outskirts of Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (IHA via AP)
