Skier flies home after race crash

McCartney after crashing in Kitzbuehel

American skier Scott Macartney has been released from hospital and flown home to continue his recovery after a heavy crash in the Kitzbuehel downhill.

The 30-year-old crashed at full speed at 88mph, slid 60m, lost his helmet and suffered spasms after losing his balance on the final jump of the run.

He suffered bruising to the brain and will have follow-up neurological tests at home in Salt Lake City, Utah.

A spokesman for the Innsbruck hospital said Macartney was recovering well.

The spokesman added: "The swelling is down and the only thing left are some superficial scratches on his face."

It was not known when Macartney would be back in race action.

Macartney has two podium finishes to his name, he was third in the Val Gardena World Cup downhill in December and in January 2006 finished second at the World Cup super-G at Garmisch in Germany.

Several skiers were injured during training for the Hahnenkamm, most notably Austria's Andreas Buder.

There are more important things to life than skiing US Ski Team's Marco Sullivan

He was fourth in the World Cup downhill standings before being ruled out for the rest of the season after undergoing surgery following his fall.

When racing resumed after a half-hour long delay, Swiss skier Didier Cuche won the event, with Austria's Mario Scheiber and Macartney's compatriot Bode Miller tying for second place.

US team-mate Marco Sullivan had to race not knowing how Macartney was.

He said: "It was hard to blank your head after seeing Scott's crash.

"I did not know anything about him being OK or not when I started. So under the circumstances, finishing sixth was OK for me.

"There are more important things to life than skiing."

The win took Cuche to the top of the overall standings and he leads the downhill rankings too, with Miller in second and Austria's Michael Walchhofer in third.