MONTREAL — Canada’s Mikael Kingsbury will miss moguls races for the first time in his World Cup career after suffering a back injury in training on Sunday.
The 2018 Olympic gold medallist fractured his T4 and T5 vertebrae while training on the course in Ruka, Finland, where the first competition of the 2020-2021 season will be held this weekend.
Kingsbury, who fell after landing a jump, is expected to miss four to six weeks.
The expected timeline would see him miss the first three events of the season.
The skier from Deux-Montagnes, Que., has returned home for rehab and recovery.
“My jump was good but I landed in the wrong place. Though I tried to protect myself, my back took the brunt of the impact,” Kingsbury said in a statement.
“The good news is that the fractures are at the back of the mid-spine vertebrae, so no nerves were affected.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 3, 2020.
The Canadian Press