Alex Deibold won’t have a chance to chase a second Olympic medal in Beijing.
The Team USA snowboarder will miss the 2022 Winter Olympics after suffering a head injury at a World Cup event in Italy on Saturday, U.S. Ski and Snowboard announced on Tuesday.
“While I’m grateful to know I’ll have a full recovery in the long run, I am obviously heartbroken to miss the Games,” Deibold said. “I feel pretty lucky to have all this medical staff helping me recover so quickly.”
The 35-year-old earned a bronze medal in snowboard cross at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. After being named a backup for the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, Deibold was set to return to Olympic competition in 2022.
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Nick Baumgartner, Hagen Kearney and Mick Dierdorff make up the U.S. men’s snowboard cross team as of now. All three are returning competitors from PyeongChang, with Kearney finishing the highest of the three with a sixth-place result.
No replacement for Deibold has been announced yet.
