3 April 2025, the Italian ski championships in Moena. Federica Brignone falls in the second run of the giant slalom and badly hurts her left leg: a displaced fracture of the tibial plateau and the head of the fibula, plus a torn anterior cruciate ligament in the knee. She is operated on the same evening.
On 20 January 2026 she is back racing, in the giant slalom at Plan de Corones, and finishes sixth: 292 days after the injury. On 12 February, at the Milano-Cortina Olympics, she wins the super-G at the Olympia delle Tofane, her first Olympic gold; on 15 February she wins the giant slalom too. From injury to double gold: 318 days.
Her case is exceptional, and we should not turn it into a promise for everyone. But it reminds us of something true about every restart, after an injury or a pause: the body and confidence do not always travel at the same speed. A systematic review with meta-analysis published in 2024 and led by Timothy Sell gathered 83 studies on “psychological readiness” to return to sport after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, measured with the ACL-RSI scale. Average scores were 44.4 before surgery and 61.5 at 3–6 months after, and reached a peak, about 70.7, between 2 and 5 years.
A note of caution, though: the authors themselves rate the strength of the evidence as weak, and 78% of the studies are at high risk of bias. These are group averages, not predictions for any one person, and an elite athlete like Brignone is not a typical case. We do not even know what she felt during those months: her story is a prompt, not a proof.
What to do with it? If you are starting again after something (an injury, an illness, a hard period), try giving time to confidence as well, not only to performance. A few practical ideas, which are not a protocol from the study: split the return into small, concrete stages; celebrate the stages and not just the finish line; avoid comparing yourself with people who bounce back faster. If it is an injury, the right pace is set by your doctor and physiotherapist.
Patience is not standing still: it is taking each day the step that is possible today, even if it looks small.
And you, what small step can you take today to start again? Share it in the comments: it may help someone who is just beginning.
Sources
- Sky Sport (12 February 2026), Federica Brignone, dall’infortunio al doppio oro alle Olimpiadi di Milano-Cortina: the injury of 3 April 2025, the return on 20 January 2026, the golds of 12 and 15 February.
- Sell T.C., Zerega R., King V., Reiter C.R., Wrona H., Bullock G.S., Mills N., Räisänen A., Ledbetter L., Collins G.S., Kvist J., Filbay S.R., Losciale J.M. (2024). Anterior Cruciate Ligament Return to Sport after Injury Scale (ACL-RSI) Scores over Time After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction: A Systematic Review with Meta-analysis. Sports Medicine – Open, 10(1). DOI: 10.1186/s40798-024-00712-w.
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