World Cup overall leader Marco Schwarz of Austria suffered a season-ending crash in a downhill in Bormio, Italy, last Thursday.
Schwarz, 28, had surgery Friday to repair a right knee ligament tear, plus meniscus and cartilage damage.
Schwarz, a seven-time world championships medalist, made the podium in four of the first eight World Cup races this season going into Thursday’s downhill.
That gave him an eight-point lead over Swiss Marco Odermatt in the early standings for the World Cup overall title, the biggest annual prize in ski racing.
Odermatt, who last winter broke the men’s Alpine World Cup single-season points record, moved back into the standings lead after Schwarz’s crash.
Odermatt now leads by 172 points through 10 of a scheduled 41 races this season, which ends in March. He also leads the standings in the downhill, super-G and GS.
Last February, Schwarz became the second skier in history to finish in the top six in of the downhill, super-G, giant slalom, slalom and combined at one world championships, according to the Austria Press Agency. He won combined silver and GS bronze.
