Norwegian skier Kjetil Andre Aamodt, winner of a record 19 Olympic and world championship medals, will miss the next season after breaking an ankle in training in Austria on Wednesday.

The 32-year-old crashed in training for the first World Cup race of the season in Soelden at the weekend.

"He was still a bit dizzy after the operation, but he's relatively okay," Norwegian Alpine ski team leader Atle Skaardal told Norway's NTB news agency.

"Doctors told me that the break will need eight weeks to heal," he said

Skaardal said the injury would not affect Aamodt's plans to keep skiing until after the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy.

Aamodt hopes to increase his haul of seven Olympic and 12 world championship medals, more than any male skier in history.

Aamodt has won three Olympic titles, the 1992 and 2002 super- Gs and the 2002 combined. From the world championships, he has five victories + the 1993 slalom and giant slalom and in the 1997, 1999 and 2001 combineds.

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