Kilde avoids broken bones in Wengen crash as calendar changes eyed

Ski star Aleksander Aamodt Kilde suffered a gash on his calf and a dislocated shoulder but did not break a bone in his big Wengen crash, the Norwegian ski team said on Sunday.

The incident in Saturday's downhill in Switzerland overshadowed Marco Odermatt's masterful victory and looks set to prompt changes in future programmes.

Kilde, the boyfriend of American ski great Mikaela Shiffrin, had to be taken off the slope by helicopter and his season was thought to be over. He was operated on in Bern.

"There is no break but he is injured," team doctor Marc Jacob Strauss said. He could now theoretically race again this season.

Last season's downhill king Kilde posted an Instagram photograph from his hospital bed, with Shiffrin - who is not racing this weekend - at his side.

"This sport can be brutal but I still love it," he wrote.

There have been several big crashes in the alpine skiing World Cup season. Pundits have speculated whether a lack of natural snow or melting snow due to climate change is to blame.

In Friday's super-G in Wengen, former overall World Cup winner Alexis Pinturault from France crashed and suffered a serious knee injury that will end his season.

But Germany ski coach Christian Schwaiger believes another factor is at play.

"The calendar we are currently racing is insane," he told dpa.

Two downhill races, a super-G and a slalom are on the programme in Wengen. In a few days' time, it is off to the fearsome Kitzbühel.

Governing body the FIS is now set to make changes. A postponed downhill in Beaver Creek was added to the Wengen programme, but it looks like such a situation will not happen again.

"It is not good to force something into an already overloaded calendar," FIS race director Markus Waldner was quoted as saying by Swiss news agency SDA on Sunday.

"You could see that many skiers were physically overtaxed by the full programme."