The season is already over for five ski stars: that is the cause of the series of injuries in the World Cup

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It is December 11, 2023. Wendy Holdener (30) thunders into the net during slalom training. “That was the hardest fall of my career,” she says. Her left ankle is being repaired with a plate and several screws. The question is whether she will return this winter. “First I have to learn to walk again,” she says.

What you couldn’t have guessed at the time: Holdener’s injury was just the beginning of a dark series. Four other ski aces were seriously injured. Austrian ski messiah Marco Schwarz (28) was hit first; he tore his cruciate ligament during the descent from Bormio on December 28. There are two other prominent victims in Wengen. Alexis Pinturault (32, Fri) falls in the Super-G. He also tears his ACL and breaks his hand – his season is over.

24 hours later, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (31, no) is no better – he flies away from Ziel-S. He has a dislocated shoulder and a serious cut on his leg. “I was in pain like never before and lost a lot of blood,” reports the apparently indestructible Viking from his hospital bed. As if all this were not enough, last Saturday another top skier was seriously injured: Petra Vlhova (28, Slk) tore her cruciate ligament during the home race in Jasna in front of 30,000 spectators.

Five stars, five serious injuries – all in just six weeks. Is it all coincidence and bad luck? Or is there more going on?

More personal responsibility and less racing

One thing is clear for Hans Flatscher: “What happened is very bad for the entire sport of skiing.” The Swiss alpine director emphasizes that every injury is one too many. “But you can’t lump all things together, they are too different. It especially doesn’t help to blame each other.” Yet Flatscher also believes that possible causes of accidents should be analyzed very carefully. First he gives the example of Kilde. The Norwegian was already suffering before his fall; he was visibly at the limit – or above – in the third speed race in three days. “That is not possible on such a strenuous route. In such cases I think it is important that the athletes take personal responsibility and perhaps even skip a race.”

At the same time, Flatscher agrees with athletes like Marco Odermatt (26), who criticized the mammoth program in Wengen (2 training sessions, 3 races). “Due to the canceled races, another race has been added to the Lauberhorn. The organizers had created a nice slope, but in retrospect the program was too full. That is a lesson that must be learned.” The husband of giant world champion Sonja Nef (51) generally thinks that the FIS could take “some pressure” out of the extremely busy racing calendar. Translated, this means: 45 races per gender per season is too much of a good thing.

Even ramps, cut-resistant suits – and a revolution?

Stéphane Mougin is race director at Rossignol. The fact that Vlhova, his most important athlete, is out all winter hurts the Frenchman. He mentions a crucial point for him: “The slopes must be evenly prepared. When the snow is aggressive and icy, the athletes retreat – or fly into the net. The problem is that the service people have to decide on a lineup before the match. “But this does not fit everywhere on the route and that makes it dangerous.” Although Mougin does not specifically comment on the route in Jasna (“I wasn’t there”), Lara Gut-Behrami (32) also drew his exact conclusion after the giant slalom. «We rode on a mixture of ice and very aggressive snow. “That surprised a lot of people,” said the Ticino resident.

For Mougin, further improvements could be implemented quickly. “Finally we must make cut-resistant suits mandatory. They may not be very comfortable for some to wear, but they would prevent leg injuries like Kilde’s.” For him, a “game changer”, i.e. a decisive step in injury prevention, would be the “intelligent” ski binding. Because: The knee is the biggest problem area for skiers.

How should this binding work? The idea is that before a fall, an algorithm-defined signal is automatically sent from the airbag to the binding – which then opens. “The FIS and the binding companies are involved in such a project. But it is extremely expensive and it will take a long time before anything is actually ready.”

Plaschy: “Care more for regeneration”

Didier Plaschy knows this too. The slalom veteran mentions another aspect of injury prevention that is important to him: “I think more attention should be paid to regeneration and good nutrition. Then there is the training between matches, where too much is often done. It would be more important to lay the entire foundation before winter.”

One thing is certain: the topic of ski safety will be talked about for a long time to come – there is no quick fix in sight.

Source : Blick