Already a three-time Olympian in snowboard cross, Brockhoff fractured her L1 vertebrae when she crashed at high speed while competing at a World Cup race in Georgia. She landed on her coccyx and was airlifted from the course then taken to a hospital in the Georgian capital Tbilisi, where she underwent scans to her spinal column. The examinations showed she had broken vertebrae, but with no neurological damage. The 32-year-old Victorian was then evacuated to Greece, where doctors will operate on her back. She was accompanied by a member of the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia medical team while Belle’s partner also flew to Athens to be with her. The Australian Olympic Committee said once the operation is complete, Brockhoff was expected to remain in hospital to rehabilitate for up to two weeks before returning to Australia. “Currently our medical team are working with the medical emergency service personnel and the hospital in Greece to ensure that Belle receives the best care possible,” Olympic Winter Institute of Australia CEO Geoff Lipshut said. “We will reassess options together with Brockhoff following surgery over the next 48 hours. “Belle is in good spirits, and I am very pleased that her partner has been able to fly to Greece to support her during this time,” he said. Brockhoff is one of Australia’s most accomplished cross snowboarders and is considered a strong chance of making the national team for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina. She won a gold medal in the mixed team event at the 2021 world championships and just missed out on an individual medal at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing when she finished fourth. Injuries are an unfortunate part of snowboarding and Brockhoff has already had her fair share. At the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, she was back on the slopes two weeks after undergoing surgery, competing without an anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee. Remarkably she finished 11th. In November last year, she broke her wrist in a freak accident. “Unfortunately, my hand got stuck underneath my hip, and glacier ice is quite ‘gripping’, so I couldn’t get it out from underneath me and it was crushed,” she said in a report published by the NSW Institute of Sport. “The surgeon said it was the worst wrist break they’d ever seen. It was completely shattered, and I have a lot of nerve damage in my little pinkie.” Originally published as Australian Winter Olympian Belle Brockhoff airlifted to hosptial with broken back after horror crash