New England native Merryweather faces a roadblock in comeback season

Alice Merryweather is a 2018 graduate of Stratton Mountain School. (Max Hall/U.S. Ski Team)

There will likely be no 2022 Olympic Games for U.S. Ski Team member Alice Merryweather. 

The Hingham native and Dartmouth College student suffered a broken tibia and fibula during downhill training in Saas Fee, Switzerland on Wednesday, effectively putting an end to her season. 

According to the U.S. Ski Team, the 25-year-old Merryweather was cruising at around 80 miles per hour during her run when she crashed toward the bottom of the course in the Swiss Alps. Merryweather was airlifted to a nearby hospital, where she underwent surgery.

Photos that Merryweather posted to her social media accounts came with a warning due to their graphic nature. In the images, Merryweather’s face was swollen and badly-scraped. 

A 2018 Olympian, Merryweather was looking toward the upcoming season as a comeback year after sitting out all of 2020-21 to address an eating disorder that she developed during the pandemic. “The recovery to come looks a lot different than my last,”she posted, “but if I can rewire my brain I think I can heal some bone and ligaments too. ”

Merryweather began her skiing career when she was four years old at Attitash Mountain Resort, in Bartlett, N.H. She joined the Attitash Race Team at the age of eight, and graduated from Stratton Mountain School in 2018, the same year she made the U.S. Olympic Team. Merryweather won the gold medal in the downhill at the World Junior Championships in 2017 and the 2019 U.S. Alpine Championship downhill title at Sugarloaf, Maine. 

After the year off, she seemed poised to bid for another Olympic spot in Beijing.

“I want to say a huge thank you to everyone involved in this process so far,” Merryweather wrote. “To my coaches, doctors, physios, helicopter pilots, teammates, friends, and family – I wouldn’t be feeling “okay” if it weren’t for you all.” 

Merryweather added that she was looking forward to flying home within the next few days.