Leslie injured on Sugar Mountain,
first run on slalom
Josh Dernosek Sports Beat
Josh Brown | Chief Photographer
Kate Leslie tore her MCL coming
down the slalom on her first run Jan. 12. Leslie may possibly
be out for the rest of the season but hopes to compete again
soon.
During its race at Sugar Mountain
Jan. 12, the women’s club ski team won the event but lost a
skier, possibly for the rest of the year.
After her first run on the slalom, Kate Leslie
was heading back down the mountain in preparation for her next run
on the giant slalom. Two skiers approached her on both sides, and
her ski tips crossed.
“I felt the tips cross, and I fell down,”
Leslie said. “It knocked the wind out of me real good. My friend
just thought it was a standard fall and told me to get up, but I
couldn’t move. When I fell, I could feel the ligament just
tear, and I couldn’t lift my leg up at all.”
Leslie tore the medial collateral ligament (MCL)
in her right knee and had to be taken down the mountain in the emergency
cart.
She went to the emergency
room Jan. 14 to get X-rays, an MRI and a knee brace.
Since her fall, she has participated in physical therapy twice a
week for three weeks.
The purpose of the therapy is to “strengthen my knee so I don’t
have to wear a brace anymore,” Leslie said.
The therapy is quite simplistic, with exercises consisting of numerous
knee lifts. The most common one involves Leslie sitting on the ground
and raising her right knee while contracting the muscle at the same
time.
The exercises have apparently paid off, and Leslie is currently
out of her brace.
“I still limp around campus, but it’s better than the
knee brace,” Leslie said. “The knee brace was really stiff
and I couldn’t bend my knee at all when I walked. Now I don’t
have to wear the brace, but my right leg sort of drags when I walk.
When it snowed [last week] my right leg was just wet and cold because
I had to drag it through the snow.”
Leslie said she typically has to leave about 20 or 25 minutes before
class starts to ensure she makes it on time.
An MCL injury doesn’t take extremely long to recover from,
but if not healed properly, it could be very easy to re-injure.
Although Leslie is unsure when she will be able to return, she is
aiming for the last race of the season, and the ski team hopes she
is able to compete again. However, she stressed she would not rush
back if she were not completely ready.
“My main goal is to get healthy again,” Leslie said. “If
I’m not back for the last race, I’ll be back next season.”
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