The dress rehearsal of the Olympic hill in Predazzo becomes a fiasco with three cruciate ligament tears. Participants request improvements – also with the suits.
After a shock weekend, Germany’s best ski jumper remained only a large portion of gallows humor. “The competitions survive, tested the facilities and honestly – I would come back for the view alone”, wrote Katharina Schmid on the modernized ski jumps in Predazzo in Italy, where gold, silver and bronze will be awarded at the winter games in the coming February.
The Austrian Eva Pinkelnig, Canada’s ex-world champion Alexandria Loutite and Japan’s combined Haruka Kasai will not come back so quickly. The trio wore cruciate ligament cracks on the green mats in the Fleim valley, which means Pinkelnig (37 years) and Loutite (21) the Olympic stand. The Austrian team subsequently waived the following “for safety reasons” closed on the big hill jump.
Conference in Zurich as crisis advice
Are three serious knee injuries on a weekend? Those responsible have a clear answer and therefore ask the World Association FIS to act. The autumn conferences in Zurich, which is up to this week, are therefore also likely to become a kind of crisis summit with regard to the health and safety of the ski jumpers.
At the center of criticism: the smaller of the two Olympic ski jumps, on which two of the three cruciate ligament cracks passed. “The profile of this normal hill has not succeeded. Many athletes, athletes and coaches are very disappointed because something else is expected from a new and modern ski jump”, ” Said sports director Horst Hüttel from the German Ski Association of the German Press Agency.
DSV sports director Horst Hüttel
What Hüttel “Not successful” names are optionally also in official circles as “False planning” or “Males construction” designated. “Now you still try to re -enact by reducing the inclination of the ski jump table. said Hüttel. For him there is at the FIS “Definitely a certain pressure to act”.
National coach Kuttin: “Bitter aftertaste”
But the ski jump profile was not the only topic. It was also about the material. Close suits than in the previous season caused higher speeds and more pressure in landing. Heinz Kuttin as German national coach spoke of “A bitter aftertaste”. You have “Seen that we are not on the right track with the new set-up”. Here, too, the FIS should be sharpened in Zurich.
The debate about the Dal-Ben ski jumps in Predazzo is part of a series of discussions about the Olympic competition facilities in Italy. Above all, the construction of a bobsleigh and toboggan run in Cortina d’Ampezzo, which costs around 80 million euros, is controversial.