Resi Stiegler still in clinic

As of 4 p.m. MST on Thursday,  U.S. Alpine racer Resi Stiegler was still undergoing care and evaluation at Vail Valley Medical Center following a training crash at Copper Mountain.

The 24-year-old was taking a run on the giant slalom course at Copper when she tangled in a gate near the bottom of the course and crashed hard.

Copper Mountain Ski Patrol, U.S. Team coaches and trainers helped put Stiegler on a stretcher before taking her down the mountain and driving her to the clinic in Vail.

According to the Associated Press, Stiegler injured her left leg.

“It’s hard for us when any of the kids get hurt. We take it very, very personally,” U.S.alpine women’s coach Jim Tracy told the AP.

Details of the nature and severity of the injury are not yet available, but Stiegler was undergoing an MRI at the Vail clinic on Thursday afternoon.

“I hate to use that old cliche that it’s sport and these things happen, but the reality is that it does,” Tracy said. “You try to provide everything, safety-wise for them. She’s got great coaches, working on all the right things. But these things do happen.”

Stiegler has been plagued by injuries the past two seasons after a crash in Lienz, Austria, in 2007, when she fractured her left arm and tore ligaments in her right knee. The 24-year-old was training for an attempt at making the 2010 Olympic team.

We will post more information about this story as it becomes available.