The Ski World Cup season is young, the World Cup entourage is just really starting the speed season in North America. And although the fast and dangerous races are later on the program, the World Cup circus is confronted with a long list of injuries: Lara Gut-Behrami, Lauren Macuga, Neja Dvornik, Katie Hensien, Andreja Slokar, Marta Bassino, Clarisse Breche.
What is noticeable: In the past few weeks, it has mainly been women who have been affected. Most of them are so severe that they will miss the entire season and therefore miss the Olympic Games. Also striking: many of them – Macuga, Behrami, Slokar, Breche – suffered cruciate ligament injuries.
Waibel: “Knee is most vulnerable Element”
The knee remains the weak point in ski racing. Karlheinz ‘Charly’ Waibel, national science coach at the German Ski Association (DSV), explains why the knee is so often injured in ski racing: “The forces are transferred from the ski to the leg and the knee is the most vulnerable element in the leg.”
The DSV documents all injuries to its alpine ski athletes. In the past five years, 36 cruciate ligament tears were recorded, 20 of them in women. In relative terms, female athletes were particularly affected more often.
Ski bindings as a construction site?
Waibel sees a need for action with regard to knee injuries when it comes to ski bindings. “The idea of linking the release of the binding to the release of the airbag has been around for around three years.” The ski binding would then open when the airbag also deploys, i.e. shortly before the impact. However, developing this is a challenge.
But the bond is only one element in a complicated system. Many different factors influence safety in ski racing: in addition to the material, the physical condition of the athletes, the timing of the race, and the setting of the course. “At DSV, we tried to control various factors, but we didn’t recognize one risk factor, we didn’t recognize a pattern. Every case is individual.”
Anyone who listens to the Ski World Cup will be aware of the many injuries “aggressive slopes and aggressive material” explained.
“Caught in a vicious circle”
And Waibel also says: “We are caught in a vicious circle because the course setting is becoming more and more twisty, the material is coordinated so that you can get around the gates on narrow courses and generate speed.”
The FIS is trying to react to these developments. The international ski association has launched a package of measures with the requirement for airbags, the mandatory wearing of cut-resistant underwear and the ban on carbon shin insoles. The focus was primarily on preventing life-threatening falls.
Sarrazin, Brignone, Vlhova fight back
While the associations are striving for more safety and athletes, officials and experts are discussing the new rules in ski racing, prominent athletes are fighting back from serious injuries: Federica Brignone, for example, recently took her first turns in the snow again after she was injured at the end of last season. The Austrians Marcel Hirscher and Max Franz had to postpone their comebacks again after their injuries. For Petra Vlhova it is questionable whether she will ever be able to return to the World Cup.
And Cyprien Sarrazin, the Frenchman who had a serious fall while training in Bormio in December 2024, recently revealed horrific details about his accident and his injuries: “They took off half of my skull”he told Eurosport.
“Injury numbers are stable at too high a level”
If the series of injuries continues, the safety debate will flare up again this year. Even if the numbers do not show an increase in injuries in ski racing: “The injury numbers are stable at too high a level” says Waibel, referring to the data that the DSV collects.