Snowboarder who broke neck at Olympics already considering comeback
Austrian snowboarder Markus Schairer is one week removed from a scary, upside-down crash at the 2018 Winter Olympics. He’s one week removed from breaking his neck. He’s one week removed from not being able to walk.
He’s one week removed from this:
A post shared by Markus Schairer (@markusschairer) on Feb 16, 2018 at 3:25am PST
And yet before the Winter Games have even concluded, he’s already talking about a comeback.
Not to the 2018 Olympics, of course. Schairer underwent surgery back in Austria on Monday after fracturing the fifth vertebra in his neck. He’ll apparently need around three months to recover. But that leaves plenty of time for the 30-year-old to get back into the sport once he’s healthy again.
On Friday, he said he was “glad and thankful that everything went well” with the surgery. He also couldn’t resist considering a comeback. His logic? “It’s the easiest way to get healthy again,” he said of a return to snowboarding.
Schairer did clarify, though, that it’s “way too early to take that decision now.”
On Friday, he also shared an X-ray of his neck, with a “new jewel” in it:
A post shared by Markus Schairer (@markusschairer) on Feb 22, 2018 at 11:35pm PST
“I know that hard times are coming,” Schairer wrote. “But I’m ready.”
More Olympic coverage from Yahoo Sports:
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• Wetzel: Canadian hockey player who took off silver didn’t need to apologize
• Senator who warned of ‘biblical’ destruction of North Korea arrives with Trump
• Adelson: Nagasu offers bizarre explanations for figure skating failures
• American women set to out-medal male counterparts for first time in 20 years
