World champion ski jumper Alex Loutitt has found some positives in her rehabilitation from a devastating knee injury.
The 21-year-old Calgarian, who became the first Canadian to win a world title in the sport in 2023 when she won the women's large hill, tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee during September's Olympic test event in Predazzo, Italy.
So Loutitt won't be jumping there at the Olympics in Milan and Cortina, Italy, in February.
“It will be a year before I compete,” Loutitt said from Salzburg, Austria, where she is undergoing rehabilitation at the Red Bull Sports Performance Center. “It’s unrealistic to think about anything else.”
Loutitt's leg broke when she jumped on September 19 in qualifying for the big hill in Predazzo. During the summer Grand Prix season, jumpers land on plastic-covered turf rather than snow.
After knee surgery in 2022, she knew she already had weakness in her knee and “it was just the wrong move.”
Loutitt underwent surgery in Innsbruck, Austria, under the guidance of orthopedic surgery and sports traumatology specialist Dr. Christian Fink.
“It wasn’t safe to go home because of the blood clots,” Loutitt said.
Joining the ranks of Red Bull athletes is often seen as a big paycheck and next-level marketing, but Lautitt lives the less publicized part of that relationship.
She says treatment at the Sports Performance Center has helped her emotionally understand that her dream of the 2026 Olympics has been dashed while she puts in the physical effort needed to return to the sport.
“Most of the time, when you're an injured athlete, you kind of take a backseat, and I definitely don't have that feeling being here,” Loutitt said.
“You have other athletes who are in the same situation. There is an Austrian footballer who had surgery three days before me from the same surgeon.
“We became quite close because not many people can understand what it’s like to go from being one of the best athletes in the world to not being able to bend your knee.”
Lautitt's days are filled with aquatic therapy, anti-gravity treadmills, hyperbaric chambers, magnetic pulse and electrical stimulation machines.
Lautitt says her attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), diagnosed at 18, is taken into account as therapists keep her sessions short and focused.
“Those first couple of days were the hardest just because you really can't do anything, so you're kind of doomsdaying and it's draining you more and more,” she said.
“Now that I'm doing a lot of things, it's actually perfect. My physical therapist at APC really understands who I am as a person. My brain is really happy. I'm basically going from eight to four every day. I feel really motivated and I feel like I'm really seen and that I'm not alone in this.”
“That's definitely one of the benefits that you get when you sign with them. It's not like, 'Oh, here's a paycheck once a year.'
Loutitt intends to come to Predazzo in February to support the Canadian team and cheer on her Austrian boyfriend Daniel Tschofenig.
“The way I look at it (like), I wouldn't be as upset if it was any other year. The biggest disappointment, of course, is that I'm just not competing at the Olympics, but I'm hoping that this will open up new opportunities for me without having to compete as an athlete, so maybe I can go and support my team as a support person,” she said.
“My guy, if I missed him winning an Olympic medal, I would never forgive myself for it. It's one of those things where you can suffer and get hurt, but you can still show up for the people who matter to you.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 30, 2025.
