Russian freestyle skier Maria Komissarova took a bad spill off a jump while training during the Sochi games earlier this month, fracturing the vertebra in her lower back. Now it appears a worst-case scenario may have come to pass: Komissarova said on her Instagram page Wednesday that she is paralyzed from the waist down. Her Facebook page also confirmed the statement.
Komissarova, in remarkably good spirits, remains in a hospital in Germany, where she was transferred after the accident. She was visited by Russian President Vladimir Putin following her initial surgery in Sochi. Putin’s sports minister had said at the time that the Russian government would pay for her rehabilitation.