Lake Louise: Friedman 58th in DH return

In a surprise return to the World Cup, Bryon Friedman raced the Lake Louise downhill on Saturday, finishing 58th in his first race since a vicious injury at Chamonix in January of 2005.
IN A SURPRISE RETURN to the World Cup, Bryon Friedman raced the Lake Louise downhill on Saturday, finishing 58th in his first race since a vicious injury at Chamonix in January of 2005.
    Friedman missed the end of that season and all of last year as he underwent eight surgeries to repair a shattered lower leg and the extensive tissue damage that accompanied his tumble across the Carousel Turn on the Chamonix course.
    “Early on my recovery was slower than expected, but now it’s going quicker than everyone expected,” said Friedman in a telephone interview earlier this month. “I don’t have feeling on the front of my shin, side of my leg, top of the foot. There’s just numbness. That’s what happens when they cut through eight times.”
    In a way, Friedman’s injury was similar to that of Hermann Maier, in that the shattered tibia and fibia needed to be stabilized with a metal rod, and in that the extreme swelling in the lower leg led to compartment syndrome, for which doctors needed to slice open his flesh to allow the leg to swelling to expand.
    Like Maier, Friedman said that surgery means he has strange bulges on his shin that are tough to fit into a ski boot. “It’s a lot bigger than my other leg,” he said. “The injured leg is bulging out of the fascia. Once you cut through that it never comes back. I had to set up my boot buckles differently so I could have more volume in my boots.”
    Friedman’s last surgery was five weeks ago, when he got some of the metal removed. The rod is still in his tibia, with one screw (there were originally eight). The rod may stay in permanently if bone grows over it.
    Friedman carries bitter memories of his lonely stay in a hospital near Sallanches, France, and campaigned hard this summer for adjustments to the U.S. Ski Team’s evacuation policies.
    “I pushed some wrong buttons, but sometimes that’s what has to be done to get results,” he said.