Russian Olympic skicross racer Maria Komissarova underwent 6 1/2 hours of spinal surgery on Saturday after breaking her back in a Sochi 2014 training crash.

The 23-year-old had a metal implant inserted and surgeons said they would not know how successful the operation had been for three or four days.

Her condition was serious but she was in a stable condition, the Russia Freestyle Skiing Federation said, adding she was likely to be taken to a Moscow hospital or go abroad for treatment when it was possible to move her.

Her mother, Maria, was due to arrive in Sochi on Sunday.

President Vladimir Putin visited Komissarova on Saturday evening to wish her a rapid recovery and doctors briefed him on the surgery, the federation said.

Komissarova told Putin her father was extremely worried, so the president called him to offer his assurances the doctors were doing their best to help her make a full recovery, it added.

The International Olympic Committee said in a statement: "Our thoughts are with the athlete and the family".

Komissarova suffered the injury during training at the PSX Olympic skicross venue at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park. She was taken to Krasnaya Polyana Hospital Number 8, which was specially built for the Olympics, where doctors decided to operate.

"During one of her training runs, Maria injured her spine," the freestyle team's head of media, Mikhail Verzhba, said. "It is a serious injury."

Verzhba said the athlete had received medical assistance almost immediately.

The 1,200-meter skicross course at Extreme Park is a medium-pitch slope which features cambered turns, gap jumps, drops and flat sections.

The skiers race down the course in groups of four in a test of speed, skill and aggression with the first across the line the winner.

"You will never be able to exclude any kind of risk," IOC president Thomas Bach said.

"We feel very sorry for the athlete. We hope the operation will be successful and she will be back."

Bach said, as he understood it, the accident had nothing to do with conditions at the Extreme Park.

(China Daily 02/17/2014 page23)