Scary moment at the Olympics
Combiner caught by snow blower
02/19/2026 – 2:09 p.mReading time: 1 min.
Benjamin Loomis will remember his last Olympic jump on the ski jump in Predazzo for a long time. He narrowly avoids an accident.
US combined athlete Benjamin Loomis narrowly avoided a serious accident at the Winter Olympics. While ski jumping in the team sprint, an inattentive snow blower hit him in the shoulder in the inrun lane, but the 27-year-old was still able to complete his jump and landed at 116 meters.
“I was lucky that it only hit my shoulder. If it had hit me in the face, the outcome would have been completely different,” Loomis told Norwegian broadcaster NRK. When there was heavy snowfall, several helpers stood at the ski jump with snow blowers to keep the inrun lane clear. Almost everyone withdrew in time, only one didn’t.
Lasse Ottesen, race director of the Fis World Federation, said of the incident: “An extreme day. The crew did an excellent job. It is very unfortunate that there was an incident with Loomis.”
He added: “Luckily nothing serious happened, but something like that shouldn’t happen. The person in question apologized to the jury and the FIs apologized to the USA.”