useless-sloveniafacts:

Remember that time at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics when Petra Majdič, in the warm-up run of the women’s cross-country skiing individual sprint event, fell on an unprotected curve – down into a 3 m deep ditch, breaking not only one of the skis and ski poles, but also 4 (!) of her ribs. Then, because the initial X-ray failed to show the fracturing, she proceeded to go on, qualifying and progressing through the quarter-finals and semi-finals (when one of the broken ribs punctured her lung, collapsing it!) and then finals, where she won bronze (sprinkled with diamonds, as she’d later say), after which she was immediately taken to the hospital.   {x} {x} {x}

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Despite ending her career early (returning for another season, but then retiring from competitive sport in 2011), she remains one of the best cross-country skiers in history, the 2nd best female sprinter of all time.  {x}