Olympic Skier Breaks Spine

A 23-year-old Russian skier broke her spine today during a training run for the Sochi Olympics, reports Ria Novosti. The good news is that Russian officials say Maria Komissarova's six-plus-hour surgery went well, reports AP, though no details about her prognosis were immediately available. Specifically, doctors say Komissarova "fractured the 12th dorsal vertebrae in her lower-middle back."

Komissarova is a "skicross" competitor, which the BBC describes "as a freestyle event in which skiers race down a mountain while negotiating big-air jumps and obstacles." It became an Olympic event in 2010. It's "a sport with a certain risk," says the president of the International Olympic Committee. "You will never be able to exclude any kind of risk." The AP says the course Komissarova was training on had nine banked turns and 25 jumps. She got injured amid a series of jumps near the top of the course. (More 2014 Sochi Olympics stories.)