In the driving snow during the Nordic Combined jumping, a snow blower almost caused an American to fall while approaching the jump.
Northern Italy is sinking into snow chaos. It also snows non-stop in Tesero. In order for the Nordic Combined competition to take place at all, snow blowers were used during jumping to clear the inrun track of fresh snow. But it was precisely such a snow blower that caused a shocking moment.
Hit by snowblower: “Lucky it was just the shoulder”
The Nordic combined athlete Benjamin Loomis narrowly escaped a hard crash on the ski jump at the Winter Olympics. The 27-year-old from the USA was hit by a snow blower in the inrun lane while ski jumping in the team sprint.
“I was lucky it only hit my shoulder. If it had hit me in the face, the outcome would have been completely different“, says Loomis to the Norwegian broadcaster NRK. The blowers stood at the jump in heavy snowfall to keep the track clear. Almost everyone withdrew in time, but one was inattentive.
FIS race director Ottesen: “Luckily nothing worse”
Loomis completed the jump and landed after 116 meters. Lasse Ottesen, race director of the world governing body FIS, said of the incident: “An extreme day. The crew did an excellent job. It is very unfortunate that an incident occurred with Loomis.”
Ottesen added: “Luckily nothing serious happened, but something like this shouldn’t happen. The person in question apologized to the jury and the FIS apologized to the USA.“