Kamila Sellier, the Polish short-track speed skater, who is a two-time World Championship medalist and a four-time European Championship medalist, has suffered a horrific injury while in action at the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics.
The Milano Ice Skating Arena fell into a tense, collective silence on Friday evening as one of Poland’s most accomplished short-track speed skaters was carried from the ice on a stretcher following a severe injury sustained during competition.
What Happened To Kamila Sellier?
Kamila Sellier, who was competing in the women’s 1,500m event at the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, suffered a deep laceration above her left eye after another competitor’s blade made contact with her face during a chaotic, multi-athlete collision in the closing stages of the race. The incident, alarming in its nature and graphic in its immediate aftermath, drew widespread attention both inside the arena and across the global sporting community watching from home.
Despite the severity of what had occurred, Sellier’s composure in the moments that followed was remarkable. As medical personnel attended to her and arena staff raised a large privacy screen to shield the crowd from the scene, she managed to offer a reassuring thumbs-up gesture to the thousands of spectators gathered for what had been billed as the final and most anticipated evening of short-track competition at these Games.
The trail of blood she left behind on the ice near the final corner of the track required a dedicated clean-up effort before racing could resume — a stark visual reminder of just how dangerous the sport can be when things go wrong at high speed.
Polish team officials later confirmed that Sellier’s eye had not been directly damaged and that her vision was not under immediate threat. She was treated by medical staff at the venue, where she received stitches to close the wound, before being transferred to a local hospital for further evaluation and monitoring.
Sellier Suffered A Collision With Consequences
The incident involved three athletes. Kamila Sellier, Ariana Fontana of Italy — one of the most decorated Winter Olympians in history — and American competitor Kristen Santos-Griswold all became entangled during a critical phase of the race. Officiating judges determined that Santos-Griswold had executed an illegal lane pass in the moments leading up to the collision, a decision that directly contributed to the dangerous situation that followed. As a consequence, she was penalised and excluded from progression to the quarter-final stage of the competition.
The race was temporarily suspended while Sellier received emergency medical attention on the ice. Officials ensured the area was appropriately managed as the arena’s medical team worked efficiently under considerable pressure. Once Sellier had been safely removed from the track, competition resumed — though the mood inside the arena had shifted noticeably from celebration to concern.
Fontana, despite sustaining damage to her competition skinsuit and requiring brief physiotherapy attention to her left hip during the stoppage, continued racing. She went on to finish second in her heat behind Hanne Desmet of Belgium, which was sufficient to advance her into the semi-finals. Fontana subsequently progressed all the way to the final, where she narrowly edged out China’s Zhang Chutong at the finish line in a demonstration of extraordinary competitive resilience. However, in the final itself, the Italian veteran could only manage fifth place, finishing just outside the medal positions and missing the opportunity to further extend her already historic Olympic legacy.
Fontana had entered these Games with 15 Olympic medals to her name, positioning her as one of the most celebrated short-track speed skaters the sport has ever produced. Earlier in the Milan Cortina Games, she had claimed gold in the mixed relay event and silver in both the 500m and the 3,000m relay — performances that underlined her enduring class and physical conditioning. A podium finish in the 1,500m final would have moved her level with Norwegian cross-country skiing legend Marit Bjoergen as the most decorated Winter Olympic athlete of all time.
How Kamila Sellier’s Teammates Responded
The emotional impact of witnessing a teammate sustain such a visible and distressing injury was evident in the reactions of Poland’s other short-track representatives at the Games. Natalia Maliszewska, who had herself competed earlier in the evening, was visibly shaken when she spoke to journalists following the incident. She expressed that her thoughts were entirely with Sellier and that she was finding it difficult to focus on anything else in the immediate aftermath.
Fellow Polish skater Gabriela Topolska offered important context for those unfamiliar with the inherent risks of the discipline. She noted that while blade-related injuries of this kind are not routine occurrences, they are an acknowledged hazard within the sport — one that every athlete competing at this level understands and accepts as part of the professional reality.
Topolska also revealed that this was not Sellier’s first experience of such an injury, noting that she had previously required stitches following a similar incident involving a skate blade making contact with her face. The recurrence of such an injury, however rare, speaks to the physical demands and genuine dangers that short-track speed skaters face every time they step onto the ice in competition.
Who Is Kamila Sellier? The Portrait Of An Elite Competitor
Beyond the dramatic circumstances of Friday evening’s incident, Kamila Sellier represents one of the most significant figures in the recent history of Polish short-track speed skating. Born Kamila Stormowska on 12 April 2000, she has built a career at the highest level of the sport with a consistency and quality that has earned her recognition across the international skating community.
Now competing under the name Kamila Sellier, she has accumulated an impressive portfolio of achievements at the sport’s premier championship events. She is a two-time medallist at the World Short Track Speed Skating Championships — a stage that demands excellence against the very best athletes the global field has to offer. Equally, she has established herself as a formidable presence at the European Championships, where she has claimed four medals across her career to date. These accomplishments place her firmly in the upper tier of European short-track competition and reflect years of dedicated, high-performance training and competitive development.
Her presence at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics was entirely merited on the basis of her international track record, and her participation in the women’s 1,500m — one of the most physically demanding and tactically complex events in short-track speed skating — demonstrated the level of confidence both she and the Polish federation hold in her abilities at the highest stage of the sport.
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Recovery, Resilience, And The Road Ahead
As of the time of publication, Kamila Sellier was undergoing hospital assessment following her arena treatment, with Polish officials cautiously optimistic about the extent of her injuries and the likely timeline for her recovery. The wound above her eye, while serious and requiring stitches, was not reported to have caused any lasting damage to her vision — a significant relief given the location of the injury.
The incident has inevitably reignited broader conversations within the short-track speed skating community about athlete safety, the effectiveness of current protective equipment standards, and the extent to which governing bodies can further mitigate the risks inherent to a sport conducted at speeds exceeding 50 kilometres per hour on a tightly configured oval track, where athletes frequently skate in close proximity to one another.
What remains beyond question is the character Kamila Sellier displayed in one of the most alarming moments of her career. Her gesture to the crowd — composed, defiant, and quietly courageous — offered a glimpse of the mental fortitude that has underpinned her rise to become one of Poland’s most celebrated winter sports athletes. The skating world will be watching her recovery closely, and there is every reason to believe that when she returns to competition, she will do so with the same determination and competitive spirit that brought her to the Olympic stage in the first place.
