Photo: Nina O’Brien/Instagram
Nina O’Brien is back in the United States as she recovers fromleg surgery.
Team USA announced the 24-year-old’s return home Saturday on Instagram alongsidea video of the injured skierusing crutches as she boarded an airplane.
O’Brien was involved in a scary crash Monday during the women’s giant slalom race at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. She revealed she suffered a damaged tibia, “which unfortunately was an open fracture through my leg,” in a Tuesday Instagram post addressing the injury.
She continued, “I can’t leave without saying thank you one more time. The support I’ve felt over these last few days has been truly mind blowing. I haven’t been able to keep up with the messages, but please know that they’ve made this all a bit easier. It wasn’t the olympics I’d dreamed of, but the dream lives on anyways. Onwards!”
Nina O’Brien/Instagram
In the next photo, O’Brien is pictured in bed with her injured leg propped up on a pillow as her skiing teammates Paula Moltzan and AJ Hurt snuggle up beside her. Hurt, 21, appears in the next photo as well, as she and O’Brien pose outside with three other teammates.
The skier also shared a pair of photos of herself on the slopes in Beijing prior to her injury.
JOHANN GRODER/APA/AFP via Getty Images
In Tuesday’s Instagram post, after revealing the extent of her injury, O’Brien expressed her gratitude “to everyone who’s taken care of me” following her mid-race crash.
“I’m a little heartbroken, but also feeling so much love,” she explained in the caption. “Thank you to everyone who’s reached out. My phone is flooded with messages, and waking up to your words means more than you know.”
Earlier in her post, O’Brien said she “gave everything I had, and maybe too much” during Monday’s race. “I keep replaying it in my head, wishing I’d skied those last few gates differently. But here we are,” she wrote.
To learn more about Team USA, visitTeamUSA.org. Watch the Winter Olympics, now, and the Paralympics, beginning March 4, on NBC.
source: people.com
