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The 24-year-old from Melbourne collapsed to the ground after failing to complete a difficult series of turns during the second round of qualifying for the women's aerials competition.

Australia's Olympic team physician Peter Braun said that Ierodiaconou had torn the anterior cruciate ligament of the knee which was reconstructed with a donor Achilles' tendon after the first injury in June 2005.

Ierodiaconou was in third place after the first round of jumps but she failed to land her second and grabbed her left knee in agony while sliding down the slope.

She let out a chilling scream when she hit the ground. Her knee gave way on impact.

The world No.2 in aerials lay prone in the snow before being taken on a stretcher to hospital.

Ierodiaconou originally injured her knee in June last year and had the tendon in her knee replaced with that of a donor cadaver.

She won her comeback world cup event last month and was considered the Australian most likely to pick up a medal in turin.

(Source: Foxsports)