Stiegler hurts left knee in giant slalom training

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U.S. skier Resi Stiegler injured her left knee when she crashed after hooking a gate during giant slalom training Thursday. The extent of her injury isn't yet known.

Stiegler was taken off the mountain on a sled and loaded into an ambulance at the base of Copper Mountain. She was transported to the Steadman-Hawkins Clinic at the Vail Valley Medical Center for evaluation.

"It's hard for us when any of the kids get hurt. We take it very, very personally," U.S. women's coach Jim Tracy said.

The 24-year-old Stiegler has been hampered by injuries during the past few seasons. She crashed in Lienz, Austria, in December 2007, fracturing her left arm and damaging ligaments in her right knee.

Stiegler, of Jackson Hole, Wyo., returned in February and finished 19th in the slalom at the world championships. She fractured her foot a few weeks later.

"I hate to use that old cliche that it's sport and these things happen, but the reality is that it does," Tracy said. "You try to provide everything, safety-wise for them. She's got great coaches, work on all the right things. But these things do happen."

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