FIS reacts to Paris violation: “We turned the wheel wide”

Hard slopes require aggressive material coordination - and vice versa. “It’s a cat biting its own tail. “It’s very difficult to get out of there again,” said Markus Waldner from Brixen, who acts as race director for the International Ski Association.

From Innerhofer to Mölgg: An endless series After one banal super-G training fall South Tyrolean Paris joins the long list of cruciate ligament injuries this winter. For the Austrians Hannes Reichelt and Christopher Neumayer The season came to an end at the speed races in Bormio, the Enneberger Manfred Mölgg caught the French in the giant slalom in Adelboden Adrien Theaux During training, the cruciate ligament of the German Marlene Schmotz tore in the Zagreb slalom and the fate of the Swiss Aline Danioth was determined in the parallel giant slalom in Sestriere. The Pusterer Christoph Innerhofer suffered the same injury in spring 2019 at the Italian Championships. That, to name just a few of the most recent victims.

Dominik Paris is just the latest injury victim in the Ski World Cup. © APA/afp / MARCO BERTORELLO

“We don’t have a solution at the moment. We have now turned the bike wide. And turning that back will be a very difficult undertaking,” said Waldner in an interview with journalists in Kitzbühel on Tuesday evening. “We have been discussing this for a long time. It happens with all skis – slalom, giant slalom, super-G, downhill. For men and women and also in the European Cup. It's the overall package that is very aggressively coordinated, from the boot to the plate, bindings and skis. If you get a little outside the normal angle, then a cruciate ligament will tear very quickly.” Hard or soft slope? However, there is something the World Ski Association can do in collaboration with the organizers, namely prepare the slopes evenly from top to bottom. This was tackled this winter. To prevent the athletes from going from hard, very icy sections to less hard sections. “Otherwise they adjust the material so that it fits on the hard part, but then it becomes dangerous when they get to where it is a little softer,” explained Waldner. The Streif is fantastically prepared this year. “It’s still very hard, crunchy, icy, but very evenly prepared.”

And it has to be so compact and icy because there are so many forces acting on the piste and you have to prevent the piste from tearing open and the race being over with start number three. “The race should still be fair even for the high numbers.” But the harder the track, the more aggressive the material setup, and so the bike keeps turning. In order to get through the races quickly with a less aggressive overall package, the slopes would have to be prepared softer. “But this is a very difficult undertaking. Where do we start?” There are many discussions with the (ski) industry, but no one has a solution at the moment. “The calves are now twice as thick, but the ligaments are always the same” FIS race director Markus Waldner Paris was injured on a very evenly groomed slope in Kirchberg, where the European Cup was held at the weekend. “It was really stupid,” Waldner also knows. Paris, the top favorite for the downhill victory on the Streif, had tried to prevent a fall into the safety net after an inside ski error when his ski began to seize and the cruciate ligament tore.

“You have to say that the muscles of these runners are of course extremely well trained, the muscle mass that these top runners now have. If you compare them with Ken Read, he also won here, he had half the calves of the boys today,” said the race director, who also knows. “You can train the muscles, but not the ligaments. The straps are still the same, from the Domme and Ken Read, but the calves are twice as thick. The muscle holds, but if it falls below certain angles and rotations come in, it has to tear somewhere. And then the band usually breaks.”

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FIS reacts to Paris violation: “We turned the wheel wide”

Dominik Paris's end to the season due to a torn cruciate ligament once again raises the question of why there is such an increase in knee injuries in the Alpine World Cup. The International Ski Association (FIS) is also looking for a solution to the problem - so far in vain.

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