When Mikaela Shiffrin, the most successful World Cup ski racer of all time, crashed into the safety fence at high speed during a downhill run in Cortina d’Ampezzo last week, US Army fans weren’t the only ones watching through their fingers. as doctors crowded around her.
The FIS, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation, which organizes the World Cup events, has had a torrid winter in terms of injuries to its star athletes.
Earlier this month, Shiffrin’s partner, Norwegian star Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, crashed into a fence at 75mph in Wengen, leaving him with a nasty tear in his calf, a dislocated shoulder and requiring surgery for torn ligaments. He’s out for the season. Frenchman Alexis Pinturault suffered a mid-season crash at the same event.
Shiffrin’s main rival in the Slalom World Cup standings, Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova, is also MIA after suffering a knee injury following a crash during the women’s giant slalom in Jasna, a few kilometers from her hometown of Liptovsky Mikulas in the Tatra Mountains.
The list goes on. Swiss Olympic champion Corinne Suter tore her cruciate ligament and damaged her meniscus in the same Cortina d’Ampezzo descent as Shiffrin. Austrian Marco Schwarz, a former world champion who led the FIS overall standings, is also out for the season after crashing on the dark and bumpy Bormio descent in late December.
Fortunately for Shiffrin (and the FIS), after she was flown off the slopes and taken to the hospital, her team issued a statement saying her injuries were not as serious as feared. “Initial analysis shows that the ACL and PCL appear intact,” it said. Shiffrin’s dream of becoming the first athlete, male or female, to achieve 100 World Cup victories could still become a reality in the coming weeks.
I’m pretty sure World Cup ski clips aren’t allowed on social media, so if everyone’s cool and we’re on the trust tree. Here’s Mikaela Shiffrin’s crash that no one in the US should see. pic.twitter.com/oCoH15jxRj
— Ben Durham (@BigDurham) January 26, 2024
But that hasn’t stopped the debate raging in the wake of the recent spate of accidents. Why so much? Are we seeing more than usual at FIS events or is it just that there were some very high-profile athletes involved? Is ski racing becoming more dangerous?
To be clear, this is not at all the same debate as the one taking place in recreational skiing, which seems to be getting wilder and wilder. A recent article in the Telegraph cited “crowded slopes, drunken novices and a need for speed” as contributing factors to one of the worst seasons in history for recorded accidents. However, FIS World Cup events are for the best skiers in the world. They take place on empty slopes. And only an idiot would tackle the Hahnenkamm drunk.
Why so many crashes?
Understandably, the FIS is cautious about labeling the recent wave of accidents as a ‘trend’. “In recent weeks, especially on the women’s tour, we have seen more falls than normal,” a spokesperson told Telegraph Sport. “Although we do not have full season data, injury rates across the season so far appear to be comparable to previous years.”
That may be true. But some athletes are becoming increasingly skeptical. As leading downhiller Sofia Goggia said: “When the strongest skiers go down, you have to wonder.”
One theory is that the schedule has become too busy. January was a particularly busy month due to the number of canceled races at the start of the season. The FIS planned two descents for the men, in Wengen and Kitzbühel, and also two in Cortina for the women. ‘Speed weeks’, where multiple training sessions take place before each race, are always more dangerous. Once again, the FIS urged caution before drawing conclusions. “By the end of the season we will be within the norm in terms of the number of races conducted,” the spokesperson said of suggestions of a ‘congested’ calendar.
Lara Gut-Behrami, Olympic super-G champion and former overall winner, believes it is more complex than that, citing the grind of modern professional sports.
“Just talking about the number of races doesn’t make sense,” she said. “There are numerous reasons that affect performance. Admittedly, the schedule is very full. But that has been the case for years. Even if there are no races, all athletes go to training.
“There is more stress because of everything else surrounding the sport. While previously it was just about skiing, now an athlete has to multitask and worry about managing their own image and marketing. But the days still last 24 hours.”
For now, the FIS is happy to defend its safety record. It rejected suggestions that global warming or changing snow conditions could be a factor behind recent crashes. “At this time there is no correlation between global warming and the number of injuries among racers,” a spokesperson stressed, adding that strict checks were carried out before and during each World Cup event. The FIS took particular note of the judge and racer inspection prior to each run, with all competitors and coaches having the opportunity to fully inspect the course. “This gives them a good feel for the snow, the course and any other factors that could affect the race, such as wind, light or shade, etc. In addition, on the downhill the coaches inspect the course the day before any training sessions. ”
Maybe it’s just that the stakes keep getting higher? More money, better equipment, sharper edges?
It’s certainly true that athletes could do more to help themselves. Cut-resistant underwear, made from resistant polyethylene that is said to be stronger than steel or Kevlar by weight, could have prevented Kilde’s horrific calf tear. It is mandatory for parallel events. But downhill racers don’t like wearing it because it slows them down.
Just as the ‘Halo’ device was introduced in Formula 1 despite protests from drivers, perhaps skiers need to be protected from themselves? Goggia agrees. “It should be mandatory,” said the Italian.
“It’s a no-brainer,” U.S. women’s coach Paul Kristofic agreed. “But there are always people who oppose these things for different reasons. There was no unanimous support for the airbag [inflatable devices that skiers wear under their racing suits] or.”
The FIS said there are no plans for now to force racers to wear cut-resistant underwear, saying only that the FIS is “encouraging” its competitors to do so. “Any rule changes for future seasons will be discussed by the Alpine Rule Committee at the annual FIS spring meetings in May,” it added.
One or two more accidents of the kind Kilde experienced and a change will surely be brought into law. It’s been a scary few weeks in skiing and the questions are piling up.