Injured world champion ski jumper Alex Loutitt puts in the work to return to action

World champion ski jumper Alex Loutitt has unearthed a few silver linings in her rehabilitation from a devastating knee injury.

The 21-year-old Calgarian, who was the first Canadian to win a world title in the sport in 2023 when she was victorious in women's large hill, tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee in September's Olympic test event in Predazzo, Italy.

So Loutitt will not jump there at the Olympic Games in Milan and Cortina, Italy, in February.

"It'll be a year before I compete," Loutitt said from Salzburg, Austria, where she's rehabilitating at Red Bull's Athlete Performance Center. "It is unrealistic to think anything else."

Loutitt's leg crumpled when she landed a jump in Sept. 19 qualifying for the large hill in Predazzo. Jumpers land on plastic-coated turf instead of snow during the summer Grand Prix season.

She knew from knee surgery in 2022 there was pre-existing weakness in her knee and "it was just like perfectly the wrong move."

Loutitt underwent surgery in Innsbruck, Austria, under orthopedic surgery and sports traumatology specialist Dr. Christian Fink.

"It was not safe to travel home because of blood clots," Loutitt said.

Entry into Red Bull's stable of athletes is often seen as a big payday and next-level marketing, but Loutitt is living the less heralded part of that relationship.

She says her treatment at the Athlete Performance Centre has helped her emotionally come to grips with her 2026 Olympic dream being dashed, while she puts in the physical toil required to return her to her sport.

"A lot of the time when you are an injured athlete, you're kind of put on the back burner and I definitely don't have that feeling being here," Loutitt said.

"You have other athletes who are in the