German skiing not happy with freestyle medal hope cancelling Olympics

Munich (dpa) - German Ski Federation (DSV) alpine director Wolfgang Maier on Friday sharply criticised freestyle skiing medal hope Lisa Zimmermann over cancelling her appearance at next month‘s Olympics for injury reasons.Maier told dpa Zimmermann had refused all DSV help after a cruciate ligament tear in her right knee which she didn‘t want to be operated on."You can‘t not operate a cruciate ligament tear, do nothing all summer, ski a little before Christmas and say I am going to the Olympics. That has nothing to do with professional sport," Maier said."We offered her every support. We could have a achieved a lot with an orthotic, would have put together a programme for her. But she didn‘t want it."Zimmermann, 21, has been struggling with the injury since February. Her management told the DSV Thursday she would be unable to compete in upcoming World Cup events and thus not be able to qualify for the February 9-25 Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Zimmermann is a slopestyle world champion from 2015 and won the big air event at the 2017 X Games."It is a shame, she could have brought her sport forward a lot," Maier said.