Chaos for Nina Pinzarrone at the World Championships, who gets a bloody nose again just before the free freestyle

A few minutes before Nina Pinzarrone’s freestyle, all officials and people from the organization were chaotically mixed up. The Brussels native had to take to the ice for her freestyle, but was nowhere to be found.

The reason? Another nosebleed. The Belgian champion also suffered from this during the training for the short freestyle. On the eve of the match, the vein in question was cauterized.

The nosebleeds did not occur until just after the warm-up for the free freestyle. “I felt a lot of blood coming out of my nose again and had to sit down immediately and call a doctor,” Pinzarrone tells her story. “They burned my nose shut again without any anesthesia. I had a panic attack, because I didn’t know if I would still be able to skate and how that would turn out.”

Pinzarrone was given a few minutes’ extension by the organization. “If they hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t be able to skate. I didn’t go on the ice until very late and couldn’t warm up for that long.”

On the ice, Pinzarrone could barely breathe. A cotton ball allowed her to use only one nostril. “It was really very difficult. I couldn’t really smile at the jury either.”

Pinzarrone quickly fell in her freestyle. “When I fell at the beginning, I had to think about where I could do the combination. That had never happened to me before. Place and point then no longer play a role.”

The Belgian champion does not care that she only finished fifteenth. “Given the circumstances, I’m just happy that I performed until the end. I will come back next year and I want to show that I am the best.”