Albrecht back on snow four months after waking from coma

Swiss ski racer Daniel Albrecht has returned to ski training after a Jan. 22 wreck suffered while training at Kitzbuehel left him in an induced coma for three weeks. Now, 18 weeks later, Albrecht is taking strides towards returning to his successful racing career.

Before returning to the slopes, Albrecht attended a Swiss team training camp in May on the Spanish island of Mallorca. Only one month after being released from the hospital he participated in a three-day, on-snow slalom workout last week on Austria’s Kaunertal glacier.
Swiss ski racer Daniel Albrecht has returned to ski training after a Jan. 22 wreck suffered while training at Kitzbuehel left him in an induced coma for three weeks. Now, 18 weeks later, Albrecht is taking strides towards returning to his successful racing career.

Before returning to the slopes, Albrecht attended a Swiss team training camp in May on the Spanish island of Mallorca. Only one month after being released from the hospital he participated in a three-day, on-snow slalom workout last week on Austria’s Kaunertal glacier. Teammates Sandro Viletta, Marc Gini and Beat Feuz, and Coaches Sepp Brunner and Jörg Rothen watched in amazement as Albrecht worked out along side them. “It is a sensation – Dani is doing better run after run,” his coaches were quoted on Swiss publication Blick.

“For me it is almost like a fairytale. So far I have made a step forward every single day,” the 25-year-old told Blick. “But I am realistic enough to know that the time will come when this stops and I will also regress.”

In an April report Albrecht was quoted as saying he initially had very little recollection of even being a ski racer, let alone of the crash. “I want to become completely healthy again. Ski racing was a cool job. I want to make that happen again,” he said.

Albrecht has told reporters he has a two-year plan to return to ski racing.

As an all around threat, Albrecht is a three-time Olympian and four-time World Cup winner.