DENVER — For American skier Nina O'Brien, it took a village to get her to the Winter Olympics in Beijing, and now it's taking a village to bring her home.
O'Brien returned to the United States on Friday morning after breaking her leg in a bad crash in the giant slalom at the Winter Olympics. She had surgery in China before getting on a plane that took her from Beijing to Tokyo to Texas.
Her mother and boyfriend surprised her at the airport in Dallas. Then they boarded a private plane to Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport in Broomfield, where she sat down for an interview with 9NEWS.
"This is beyond anything I could have imagined or dreamed," said O'Brien, 24, who's originally from San Francisco and trains in Vail. "I don’t think anyone who’s ever broken their leg has had such a warm welcome home. It feels pretty amazing. I feel really lucky."
O'Brien was sixth after the first run of the Olympics women's giant slalom event, then hit a gate and crashed in the final turn of her second run. A U.S. Ski Team spokesperson said shortly after that O'Brien was "alert and responsive" as she was taken away on a sled to a hospital.
>> Nina O'Brien returns, injured from the 2022 Olympic Winter Games
"I was certainly feeling pretty low for a minute there, lying in China," O'Brien said. "I was surrounded by doctors and really kind nurses and people from the U.S. Olympic Committee."
She had suffered a compound fracture of her left tibia and fibula. It was an open fracture through her leg.
"It looks pretty gruesome," she said.
O'Brien's mother, Dana, said she watched the moment on TV, and it happened so quickly that she almost missed it.
"It was very scary," she said.
"Most parents get to accompany their children to the Olympics and be in the stands, watching and cheering," she said. "It's been a long distance, watching her over there."
O'Brien was scheduled for a CT scan later Friday, after which she said she'd have a better idea of what her rehabilitation will look like.
"I'm hoping to come back stronger," she said.
She called her crash the end of one dream.
"But this moment, being welcomed home by everyone, is so unexpected," she said. "It makes me want to cry. It's the best way to come home."
>> Full interview in the player below:
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