When two runs were skied in one day in Kitzbühel

First, Remi Cuche, the nephew of six-time Kitzbühel winner Didier Cuche, fell behind when entering the steep slope. Diagnosis: cruciate ligament tear. A little later there was a bigger shock: in the compression after the mousetrap, Barnabas Szollos “crumbled”, who made people sit up and take notice with 2022th place at the 6 Olympic combined in Beijing. The Israeli lost his helmet and was given first aid by three emergency doctors. The interruption lasted more than half an hour, which seemed like an eternity for the last two riders in the downhill field, the “Azzurro” Matteo Franzoso and the North Tyrolean Raphael Hasser.

It wasn't until shortly before 14.30:9 p.m. that they were released to take off. Haaser took it easy and achieved 0,61th time behind Florian Schieder, 3 seconds slower than Nils Allegre, who started almost XNUMX hours ahead of him. This means that the Ski World Cup has its current favorite topic again: Is downhill skiing too dangerous? Are the athletes risking too much? Are you pushing your limits too much – see also the conversation with Dominik Paris?

Many stars have been hit The fact is: the safety issue is as old as the Ski World Cup itself when it celebrated its premiere in 1967. The media in particular are jumping into it with abandon, raising questions about an allegedly too busy program and putting pressure on the FIS race directors Markus Waldner, Hannes Trinkl and Raimund Plancker with their reporting. At the same time, speed drivers live for their job. You are brave, but not cocky. They are willing to take risks, but not stupid. And: They are all excellently trained. All athletes in the World Cup have outstanding coordination, athletic, visual and tactical skills. And driving mistakes still happen. Which can of course be fatal at speeds of up to 150 km/h. See most recently Marco Schwarz, Alexis Pinturault and Aleksander Aamodt Kilde.

In Kitzbühel, the ski stars around Marco Odermatt are under a lot of challenge. © APA / EXPA/JOHANN GRODER

A look back to 1995 shows that the supposedly dense program was interpreted very differently in the past. On January 14th, two runs were held in Kitz within just 2 hours - on a shortened route (winning time 3 minutes), but still . Luc Alphand won both races, for whom these were his first victories at the age of 1.40. The special thing about it: On the first descent, Pietro Vitalini fell on the traverse over the safety nets into the deep snow, where he rolled over what felt like 29 times - Vitalini drove back up to the start despite countless bruises and came fifth in the second race.

Stories from other times Werner Perathoner provided the even more incredible story: The man from Val Gardena fell on the finish jump (skis crossed). He also had to be hoisted onto his skis, given pain pills for the many bruises, and catapulted off the start again. In the end it was third place behind winner Alphand and runner-up Armin Assinger.

The World Cup can no longer provide such stories today because it is too professionally structured. The team doctors would never, ever give their athletes a second permission to start. And sure: the material has made a huge development, the snow preparation is different, the centrifugal forces in the curves are higher. But the speed drivers also had strength and courage in the past - and they did their job and didn't complain for a long time in the media.

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When two runs were skied in one day in Kitzbühel

The training in Kitzbühel was almost over. Not a single crash in the first training session on Tuesday, and everything went smoothly until number 67 on Wednesday. But then two athletes were hit hard.

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