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Kitzbühel, January 22, 2009. Next Thursday there will be downhill training on the infamous “Streif”. The conditions are optimal, the slope is rock hard and there is not a cloud in the sky. But the smell of fear also hangs in the air above the Hahnenkamm.
The runway is particularly fast this year, so particularly long flights are expected for the target jump. The old chief physician in Kitzbühel, Dr. Helmuth Obermoser assigns the positions to his five route doctors. The young Innsbruck surgeon Dr. Hermann Nehoda is ordered to jump to the finish. “This was my first time on a Hahnenkamm descent this year, so I had no idea what to expect. But then I felt very clearly that the finish jump was worrying some people,” Nehoda remembers.
“It was immediately clear that it was very critical!”
In fact, it doesn’t take long for this training session to turn into a tragedy. With starting number 5, combined world champion Daniel Albrecht hit the traverse exit on the local mountain so well that he shot towards the finish jump at around 140 km/h. Because the Valais, who a few weeks earlier confidently triumphed in the giant slalom in Alta Badia, fell behind after the jump and was under water, he flies in a high arc through the air and violently hits his head on the icy strip.
Dr. Nehoda immediately sprints to Albrecht and administers first aid. “I secured the airway and attempted to communicate with the patient. But nothing came back at all. So it was clear that Daniel Albrecht was in a very critical condition. It was the worst thing I have experienced as a track doctor.” Albrecht, then 25 years old, was transferred by helicopter from the finish area to the University Hospital in Innsbruck, where he was placed in an induced coma with severe traumatic brain injuries.
Special reunion
It takes 21 days for Fiescher to wake up from his coma. Eighteen months after this terrible event, Albrecht and Dr. each other again on the green strip. Nehoda. «Albrecht returned to Kitzbühel for the first time on this September day and walked along the Streif. When I was able to meet him afterwards in the finish area, it was a particularly nice moment for me, because it is anything but self-evident that Daniel is doing so well again after this terrible accident,” says the Tyrolean Doc.
Years later, Albrecht provides proof that he has not lost his pitch-black sense of humor due to this accident. “Maybe the fall will help me raise my daughter. If one day I notice that she is racing too wildly and too fast on the ski slopes, I show her the video of my departure…”
Six years after Albrecht’s career ended, Dr. Nehoda resigned as a track doctor at the Hahnenkamm. «After Daniel’s accident, I was confronted with serious head injuries again while on patrol. I was on the local mountain when Marc Gisin flew out and suffered a severe traumatic brain injury. There are doctors who are completely insensitive in such situations. But I have always suffered immensely for these athletes. That’s why I no longer work at the Hahnenkamm.”
Daniel Albrecht was last on the most dangerous descent in the world in 2019. When he looked at the goal jump, he said with a wink, “Without this advantage, I would probably be a multi-millionaire right now.” But ‘Albright’ doesn’t have to starve today – his business with moonlight houses and custom-made ski wear is doing well. And Albrecht wants to open his own school soon.
Source : Blick
I’m Emma Jack, a news website author at 24 News Reporters. I have been in the industry for over five years and it has been an incredible journey so far. I specialize in sports reporting and am highly knowledgeable about the latest trends and developments in this field.
