Aleksander Aamodt Kilde has confirmed that he is eyeing the Downhill at Beaver Creek, Colorado, as his first comeback race after his injury 20 months ago. The Norwegian ski racer had crashed on the famous Lauberhorn course in Wengen, Switzerland, in January 2024. The crash left Kilde with a severe laceration to his leg and a complicated dislocation of his left shoulder, which severed ligaments and caused extensive damage to the athlete’s rotator cuff. His shoulder injuries initially healed well, but he was later plagued with continued infections and sepsis, resulting in repeat surgeries and prolonged recovery for the Norwegian athlete.
The Downhill race at Beaver Creek, coincidentally, is also Kilde’s favorite race, so a return to World Cup races on December 14 on the Birds of Prey course would be a fitting comeback. “I have a few favorites, Beaver Creek, Kvitfjell, and Val Gardena, that’s top 3–and then with the environment and the vibes and stuff, Kitzbühel and Wengen are up there,” the athlete shares at the Atomic Media Day in Salzburg on October 9, which he attended alongside his fiancé Mikaela Shiffrin and other Atomic-sponsored athletes.
Kilde admits that the time away from competitive ski racing has been hard for him. “I have missed this. When you sit at home and it’s like you don’t have any purpose, it’s difficult.” When we queried him whether he ever had any doubts about his comeback during those long 20 months, he admits it has been an emotional rollercoaster, “It’s been up and down, yeah, definitely,” Kilde shared with SnowBrains. “There have been moments where I thought ‘This is not going to work!’ and moments where I thought ‘This is doable!’,” he admitted openly.
The 33-year-old returned to on-snow training at Galdhøpiggen Summer Ski Center in Norway—the highest summer ski area in Scandinavia—in August this year. Following the first proper training runs on home soil, the Norwegian set off on the training camp in Chile with the Norwegian team, where he got to compete against his teammates and test his physical condition. “The leg is good,” he happily states, “but the shoulder is missing—I would say 20% maybe.” Nevertheless, the 2023 Downhill Crystal Globe winner admitted to experiencing goosebumps when he first got back on snow: “It was incredible to ski fast and jump. The material was great and everything fit.”
If anything good came from his prolonged time away, it is the realization of his overwhelming passion for the sport and realizing that he is not done. “I want to be back, competitive, win races, be strong again,” he admitted with passion burning through his eyes. “That’s been driving my motivation: to keep fighting!” He is not worried about a possible mental block after his crash and shakes his head when we ask him about it. “I need to be aware of it possibly being there,” he admits rather matter-of-factly, “And if it is, I will take it and deal with it and figure it out.” It’s almost like his accident has lit a fire inside of him, and he will let nothing stand in his way. In a very Norwegian way, he is very grounded and unemotional about things outside his control. “I think you won’t know until you know,” he says with a shrug of his shoulders.
It’s an approach he takes into the upcoming 2025-26 season, and he does not exclude the possibility of competing at Copper Mountain, Colorado, which is hosting a Super-G and Giant Slalom a week before Beaver Creek. “I know the place [Copper Mountain] and it’s a Super-G and it’s not the toughest Super-G, so it’s the first time I will push for 100%.” Copper Mountain will host its first World Cup race in more than two decades with both men’s and women’s races on Thanksgiving Weekend from November 27-30. Copper’s high elevation and north-facing slope aspect make it the ideal venue for early-season race conditions in November.
For the American spectators, it will be a treat to see the seasoned athlete returning to the World Cup circuit at either of the two venues and to see him bring his renewed passion for this sport to the racing course.
