European Report: France’s Covili out for the season with knee injury{mosimage}French skier Frederic Covili is out for the remainder of the 2003-04 season after injuring his left knee Sunday, the French sports daily L’Equipe reported.

The 2002 giant slalom World Cup champion crashed in the first run of Sunday’s race at Alta Badia, Italy, tearing ligaments in his left knee. The 28-year-old will have surgery in Lyon, France, early next year, French team doctors said.

Winner of two World Cup giant slaloms in his career, Covili had scored two podium finishes this season, at Soelden in Austria and at Alta Badia.

> World Cup competition takes Christmas break

World Cup skiing in all disciplines takes a holiday break this week. Women return December 27 to race GS at Lienz, Austria, while men race downhill December 28 at Bormio, Italy. … Freestyle reconvenes January 7-8 in Les Cantamines, France, for skiercross and halfpipe. … Snowboard heads to Europe with a men’s big air night event at Klagenfurt on January 3 and a women’s boardercross night event January 5 at Bad Gastein, Austria. … The cross-country circuit hits Falun, Sweden for a women’s 2×7.5km double pursuit and a men’s 2x15km double pursuit, both January 6. … The Four Hills Tourney kicks off in Oberstdorf, Germany, for the K115 on December 29 while nordic combined will be in Oberhof, Germany, on December 30.

>> Bormio DH gets green light

The men’s next downhill stop at Bormio got the green light after last week’s “snow check” by FIS technical delegates.

Crews have been blowing snow to get the required depths, but FIS delegate Sepp Messner gave a thumb’s up for snow conditions on the Stelvio course 10 days before the race.

“The current state of the slope is very good,” Messner told the Italian wire service ANSA. “I am very happy, because it would be a pity if we had to renounce this classic downhill race in Bormio, which is, together with Beaver Creek and Kitzbühel, one of the most beautiful of the World Cup.”

The races will mark the 10th season in a row for Bormio and act as test events for next year’s world championships. The “Stelvio” is one of the fastest and most demanding slopes of the World cup circuit with a vertical drop of nearly 1,000 meters and pitches as steep as 63 percent.