After brother’s crash, skier Michelle Gisin skips WCup races

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 5:11 p.m. ET

BERN, Switzerland (AP) — Olympic champion Michelle Gisin will skip World Cup ski races this week to be near her brother, who is in a hospital after crashing in a downhill on Saturday.

Gisin, who is fourth in the overall standings, said she will miss giant slalom and slalom races in Courchevel, France.

In a Swiss ski federation statement on Thursday, the 2018 Olympic gold medalist in combined said "my place is beside Marc and my family."

Marc Gisin broke ribs and sustained pelvic and back injuries in a dramatic fall in Val Gardena, Italy. He is being treated in his native Switzerland.

Michelle Gisin raced on Tuesday and Wednesday on the same Val Gardena slope and had her worst results this season in downhill and super-G.

"The days in (Val Gardena) have been the most difficult of my life," Gisin wrote Thursday on her Twitter account. "I have no energy left to stay away from home right now so I will not start in Courchevel."

At the Pyeongchang Olympics in February, Marc Gisin finished 21st in the men's downhill one week before his sister got her gold medal. Their elder sister, Dominique, was the 2014 Olympic champion in downhill.