Mariana Pajón, the 2012 and 2016 Olympic BMX champion and Colombia’s most decorated Olympian, is likely to miss the rest of the season after tearing left knee ligaments at a World Cup on Sunday.
Pajón, a three-time world elite race champion nicknamed the “Queen of BMX,” went down near the start of a semifinal heat at a World Cup in Papendal, Netherlands, and was carried off the course in a stretcher. Video is here.
Pajón, 26, detailed the knee injury -- an ACL tear and partial MCL tear -- on her social media Tuesday, according to Colombia’s cycling federation.
The world championships are next month in Baku, Azerbaijan.
U.S. Olympic silver medalist Alise Willoughby won last year’s world title in Rock Hill, S.C., where Pajón took bronze while bidding for a third world title in four years.
The U.S. is also home to the reigning men’s Olympic and world champions -- Connor Fields and Corben Sharrah.
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