Federica Brignone to miss start of Alpine skiing World Cup season

Federica Brignone, who came back from a broken left leg to win two Olympic gold medals on home snow in February, will miss the start of the 2026-27 Alpine skiing season after having another leg surgery in August, according to multiple Italian reports.

“I’ll definitely miss the debut in Sölden at the end of October and the North American trip in late November-early December,” she said, according to a translation of a Gazzetta dello Sport report. “Right now, I’m focused on getting better. I can’t put on my skis yet, but when I can, I’ll gladly do so. I’m curious, because this summer I put them on for one day and it was a disaster. I hope next time goes better.”

If Brignone misses the season-opening giant slalom in Sölden, Austria, on Oct. 24, plus races in November and early December in the U.S. and Canada, the earliest she could make her season debut would be a Dec. 18 super-G in St. Moritz, Switzerland.

Brignone said she underwent surgery on Aug. 25 to remove fixation devices, a plate and screws from a previous April 2025 surgery to repair her broken leg.

“I never stopped rehabilitating,” she said, according to the report. “I’ve been doing it for a year and a half: it’s now a part of my daily routine.”

Brignone won the super-G and giant slalom on home snow in Cortina d’Ampezzo, becoming at age 35 the oldest Alpine skier to take Olympic gold.

She did so 10 months after sustaining multiple left leg fractures and a torn ACL in a giant slalom crash, which led to surgeries in April 2025 and July 2025.

She returned to skiing in November 2025 and to World Cup racing two weeks before the Olympics.

The Alpine skiing World Cup will stop in three different U.S. states.