Austria's Katharina Liensberger suffered multiple serious knee injuries during a training crash. Georg Hochmuth / Getty Images

Olympic slalom silver medalist Katharina Liensberger sustained multiple serious injuries to her right knee in a training crash in St. Michael, Austria, and was scheduled to undergo surgery Friday, according to the International Ski and Snowboard Federation.

The Austrian native fractured her tibial plateau, tore her meniscus and suffered a medial collateral ligament injury ahead of this weekend’s World Cup races in Slovenia. Liensberger’s injury comes just a month before the 2026 Winter Olympics, forcing her to miss the Games in Italy. At the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, China, Liensberger helped clinch gold for Austria in the team event and took home an individual silver medal in the slalom.

The 28-year-old, who also suffered a fall a little over a month ago during training, won the slalom overall championship at the 2021 World Cup. She placed in the top 10 on four occasions this year and finished in fourth place at the Semmering, Austria slalom competition on Dec. 28. Liensberger’s one of Austria’s most consistent skiers and her presumed absence from the Olympics will be a significant blow to a country that’s already suffered injuries to three former Olympic champions; Michelle Gisin, Lara Gut-Behrami and Corinne Suter.

Liensberger is ranked 15th in the overall standings, 10th in slalom and 18th in the giant slalom, according to the FIS standings. She was Austria’s second-highest-rated women’s skier, behind only Cornelia Huetter.

Sam Jane is a trending news writer for The Athletic. He has previously worked as an intern for The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Post, MLive and other publications. He is a senior at the University of Maryland, where he was a sports editor for the campus paper, The Diamondback.