Olympics: Injured Russian skier still in serious condition
Komissarova fractured and dislocated a vertebrae in her spine.
SOCHI, Russia (AFP) - Russian freestyle skier Maria Komissarova, who fractured her spine in a ski-cross training accident at the Sochi Olympics, remains in a stable but serious condition after a satisfactory night, her federation said Sunday.
The Russian freestyle skiing federation said doctors would consider whether to move Komissarova to another hospital from the facility in Krasnaya Polyana above Sochi where she was moved after her accident on the Olympic course.
Komissarova, 23, fractured and dislocated a vertebrae in her spine. She underwent a six-and-a-half hour operation on Saturday which was described as successful and where doctors inserted a metallic implant into her spine.
"Maria Komissarova remains in a stable but serious condition. But the night was satisfactory," the federation said in a statement.
"Today doctors are again going to return to the question of the possibility of transporting her to another medical institution," it said, adding her father was also due to visit her from her hometown of Saint Petersburg.
In a sign of the gravity of the incident, President Vladimir Putin late Saturday personally visited Komissarova, who is conscious, at her bedside to wish her well.
The federation said that Komissarova had told the president that her father was very worried about her condition.
"The president then decided to speak to him on the telephone. He (Putin) assured the father that doctors were doing everything so that she completely recovers," it said.
The federation has so far declined to give any prognosis for her future health prospects.
International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams said that questions about the incident should be addressed to the sport s international federation.
But he added: "She was in training by herself when the accident happened... I do not think it was the format or the course that is necessarily the problem."
"Safety of the athletes is our number one priority," he emphasised.
Ski-cross is one of the most frenetic and risky events of the Games, where skiers race down a slope filled with jumps, obstacles and banked corners.
Komissarova s crash was by far the most serious incident so far at the Sochi Games, which has been marked by a number of falls in the freestyle skiing and snowboarding events.
However Adams emphasised that IOC injury data showed there was "nothing abnormal" in Sochi compared with the last Winter Games in Vancouver in 2010.
