Canada’s Tanaka hoping to complete comeback from injury with Olympic berth
Canadian ski jumper Atsuko Tanaka remembers having to call her parents to pick her up from the dog park when a bout of nausea — a symptom of a concussion — brought her to her knees while she was walking her dog.
That’s when the Olympian wondered, at age 22, if her ski jumping days were behind her.
Tanaka, who finished 12th at the Sochi Games in 2014, was among a handful of athletes to make history when women’s ski jumping made its Olympic debut after years of fighting for inclusion.
But since then it’s been an uphill battle for the now 25-year-old Calgarian, who endured two anterior cruciate ligament tears in her left knee, a concussion sustained from whiplash during a car accident, and the mental pains of losing out on a full season of competition just as she was reaching her peak.