Olympics-2014 snowboard cross champion Samkova out of Beijing Games

Eva Samkova, the 2014 Olympic snowboard cross champion, pulled out of next month's Winter Games in Beijing on Thursday, after failing to recover from a fall in December in which she broke both ankles. "I was doing well at the beginning of the season.

Eva Samkova, the 2014 Olympic snowboard cross champion, pulled out of next month's Winter Games in Beijing on Thursday, after failing to recover from a fall in December in which she broke both ankles. Samkova, who also won a bronze medal in the same discipline in Pyeongchang, suffered the ankle injuries in a World Cup race in Montafon, Austria.

"I will heal and come back," Samkova said in a Czech Ski and Snowboard association statement https://www.czech-ski.com/o-nas/aktuality/eva-samkova-na-olympijskych-hrach-v-pekingu-zavodit-nebude-ale-vratim-se-rika. "I was doing well at the beginning of the season. The decision not to go to Beijing was difficult but correct."

The Beijing Olympics begin on Feb. 4.