Olympic ski season opening marred by dangerous course debate

The American star was even more aware of the potential risks of training courses when she resumed skiing a few weeks after her harrowing crash last year.

In a giant slalom race at the World Cup, Shiffrin suffered severe injuries to her abdominal muscles and a puncture wound to her abdomen. The two-time Olympian knew that competing in training could also be a risky.

Not more, perhaps.

In a recent interview, Shiffrin said, “When I came back from injury, I was aware of the fencing on the side, a hole in the course, and where the trees were.”

The only way to train is to practice, which is the only way to do it, according to the statement, “We frequently train in conditions where the variables are just too many to control, and you have to decide occasionally: Is this unreasonably dangerous, or is this within a reasonable level of danger that we need to train, we need to practice, and this is how we can do it.”

Similar experiences were shared by French skier Alexis Pinturault.

The 2021 men’s overall World Cup champion said, “We are training in many places where it’s not really safe, yes, that’s 100% sure.”

When World Cup racer Matteo Franzoso died following a crash in preseason training in Chile, the ongoing safety debates in Alpine skiing came into sharp focus in September, less than five months before the Olympics in Milan Cortina, Italy.

The 25-year-old Italian slammed into a wooden fence 6-7 meters (20-23 feet) outside the course after smashing through two layers of safety fencing on a course in La Parva. He succumbed to cranial trauma and subsequent brain swelling two days later.

A talented French skier died after a training crash in April, making Franzoso the third young Italian skier to pass away in less than a year.

Are skiing’s risks life-threatening?

When Shiffrin returned to skiing after suffering an injury, she dealt with persistent post-traumatic stress disorder.

She resumed racing in late February, almost three months after her crash.

You start to overlook some of the risks that are actually life-threatening, according to Shiffrin, “because athletes and coaches and everybody are so used to saying that the sport has an inherent risk.”

I struggled with this because I was so afraid of the risk the entire season. You become paralyzed if you give it too much thought. However, it’s crucial to be able to determine what those risks are and find ways to minimize them as much as possible. It’s inappropriate to say that risk is inherent in the sport and that players should either accept or reject it.

Training courses typically lack the same safety standards as race courses for financial reasons.

Less safety netting is placed along the course to prevent falls when racers crash, and fewer medical staff and equipment, like helicopters for immediate transport to a hospital, are available.

The risk is present every time, according to Sofia Goggia, the 2018 Olympic downhill champion from Italy, who described ski racing as “an extreme sport” and said that because the speed is 80-90km/h [50-56mph] at a high level, it’s like F1 or MotoGP in downhill, super-G, but also giant slalom.

Are teams better off using more nets in preparation for the Winter Olympics?

Courses are safer in races thanks to numerous nets, Goggia claims. However, she did point out that adding more nets won’t solve the training course problems.

Before skiers can descend steeply in the early morning hours when there is overnight snowfall, safety netting should be removed, the slope cleaned of fresh snow, and the netting removed.

The International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) and the local organisers are clear about how to handle this on a race day, but who is in charge during a preseason training camp?

For Goggia, it would be wrong to criticize only the team coaches because they cannot be held accountable “because a coach only teaches you how to ski.”

She recalls Franzoso’s accident in September, when three teams from Austria, Switzerland, and Italy were practicing there.

Goggia said, “I don’t believe they didn’t realize the danger.” However, there must be a completely different organization if you want to make the training slope the equivalent of the World Cup slope. We can do more, of course. But ultimately, who accomplishes it? Who wants to make a million euros of investments?

Will ski safety issues be resolved with specialized training courses?

The Italian Winter Sports Federation requested that FIS establish dedicated training facilities with safety netting similar to those used for World Cup races in countries like Chile, Argentina, and New Zealand following the tragic Franzoso accident.

FIS President Johan Eliasch stated that the organization was working to “prevent as much as possible horrible accidents happen” just before the World Cup season-opening races in Austria last weekend.

FIS collaborated with local organizers and national federations to improve safety, including setting up a race calendar that allows skiers to rest more, having more medical personnel on the ground, and using more netting to better prepare the course’s snow surface.

When training runs at speed, ensure that the safety standards are the same as they would be on the big race day, Eliasch said.

However, Austria’s women’s team coach Roland Assinger said that might be too ambitious.

Assinger, a former World Cup downhiller, said, “A risk will always remain, but we coaches try to minimize it.”

The world’s safest training program, “Copper Mountain,” is located in Colorado, USA, with countless B nets and A netting from top to bottom. Because it’s financially impossible to invest those millions, South America also has a lot of B nets, but not at the same level.

Prior to Franzoso’s passing, the Austrian federation began shipping additional safety nets to their overseas training camps.

Was it sufficient? It was a first step, Ski Austria’s general secretary Christian Scherer said. However, the national federations must work together.

Scherer argued that ski resorts in the area should be in charge of organizing safer training programs.

Who pays for the Olympic and FIS upgrades to winter sports safety?

That is the inquiry. According to Eliasch, FIS has distributed “nearly 100 million]euros, $117 billion]” to its member federations over the past four years, “so that they have the resources.”

Eliasch added that Austria and Switzerland, two of the world’s leaders, “have so much money” that they could put more money into training course security.

This can be challenging for a smaller [federation]. We do intervene and provide, Eliasch said.

Former world champion in downhill and super-G, Austrian speed specialist Vincent Kriechmayr hoped “that the big federations would cooperate and coordinate a little bit better in areas where all nations train.”

Assinger referred to some locations that FIS believes should support in-season training camps as “certainly a good idea.”

Source: Aljazeera