Gold favorite Cooper out with injury

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Australian freestyle aerial skier Jacqui Cooper fractured her left knee and tore cartilage in a practice accident Monday and has been ruled out of the Salt Lake Olympics.

Cooper, favorite to win gold here, was practicing a double twisting triple somersault when she over-rotated and crashed on landing.

The former world champion was still twisting when her skis dug into the landing hill and her back slapped into the ground.

The Qualifying round of the women's aerials was scheduled for Saturday, with the final two days later.

Cooper, 29, had been favorite going into the Nagano Olympics in 1998 but crashed in the first round and didn't make the finals.

"The Olympics so far haven't worked out too well for me," Cooper said in a statement released late Monday by the Australian team. "Nagano was bad, but this is a whole lot worse.

"I've worked hard to get myself in a position to win -- this is a nightmare for sure."

Cooper was fitted with a knee brace and will undergo surgery when she returns to Australia. She remained in the Athlete's Village and was walking with the assistance of crutches.

Cooper, who is expected to be sidelined for up to 12 months, surprised surgeons with the speed of her recovery from a fractured vertebrae last February.

She made headlines by revealing the secret to her fast comeback last season was drinking the syrup of crushed cockroaches -- mixed with diet Coke -- as recommended by a herbalist.

"My knee is broken, my heart is broken, but my spirit is not," said Cooper, who has already turned her mind to the Turin Olympics in 2006.

Australian team doctor Peter Braun said Cooper told him she felt an explosion inside her left knee and was screaming when she hit the ground.

Braun said medical scans showed severe internal bone bruising, crushing of the internal structure of the bones in Cooper's knee and a small fracture of the tibia.

Australian delegation chief Ian Chesterman told reporters that Cooper was devastated and couldn't face a news conference Monday, but he was confident she'll return to training before the end of the year.

"She has worked hard since Nagano to earn the rightful tag as gold medal favorite," he said. "For her dream to end this way, so close to her competition, is the cruelest outcome.

"Her Olympic campaigns are certainly dogged by bad luck. She goes well in between. She had clear goals to win here and I'm sure she'll have real goals for Turin and she'll achieve what many believe is her destiny."

Australia has not won a Winter Olympics gold medal in 66 years, although it has picked up minor medals in the last two Winter Games.

Cooper was the only genuine candidate for a gold in the 27-member Australian team at Salt Lake.

 

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