Olympic snowboard cross champion Maelle Ricker confirmed she will be taking part in the Sochi Winter Games to defend her title next month after the Canadian underwent surgery for a compound fracture on her left forearm.
The 35-year-old Vancouver native fractured the arm Tuesday during pre-Olympic training in Aspen, Colorado. With her fourth Olympic Games appearance in jeopardy, Ricker elected to have surgery in nearby Vail, Colorado, to ensure her participation, reports Xinhua.
"My goal is to be ready for the start gate in Sochi but I'll definitely hate pulling out of it," Ricker said Friday in a statement, referring to the handle bars that snowboard-cross athletes grip to pull themselves from the gate.
"I've had a lot of injuries in my career and it's important to stay positive and focus on the privilege of competing for Canada at the Olympics."
Ricker had a series of injuries after winning the snowboard cross at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games.
At the 2011 FIS World Championships, she crashed in the final and broke her hand and injured her shoulder.
A concussion suffered in practice knocked her out of this season's first world cup event in Austria in December. Later that month, Ricker crashed in the final of the Lake Louise world cup event to finish fourth behind American Lindsey Jacobellis.
Canada's Dominique Maltais currently leads the women's snowboard cross world rankings while Ricker is ranked seventh. Both are medal favourites for Sochi.
