A British skier crashes through wooden fencing on a downhill corner and slams into a pole, breaking his leg. An American hits an icy patch at the bottom of a hill and crashes into a fence, breaking one ski and twisting the other, also breaking his leg.
Another American, training before a biathlon race, slides out on an icy corner and flies off the trail into a tree, breaking ribs and a shoulder blade, and punctures a lung.
These were not scenes from high-speed Alpine or ski cross events. They happened on cross-country ski and biathlon tracks made with artificial snow.
Photo: AP
Many top Nordic skiers and biathletes say crashes like these are becoming more common as climate change reduces the availability of natural snow, forcing racers to compete on tracks with the artificial version.
Olympic and World Cup race organizers have come to rely on snowmaking equipment to create a ribbon of white through the hills since natural snowfall is less reliable.
Johanna Taliharm, an Estonian Olympic biathlete, said that racing on artificial snow comes with risks.
“Artificial snow is icier, therefore faster and more dangerous,” she said. “It also hurts more if you fall outside of the course when there is no fluffy snowbank, but a rocky and muddy hard ground.”
Artificial snow has a higher moisture content, making it ice up quickly, skiers and experts say.
“It can be really rock hard out there and falling can feel like falling on concrete,” said Chris Grover, head cross-country coach for the US Ski Team.
Unlike Alpine equipment, cross county skis do not have metal edges. They are designed to be thin and lightweight for climbing hills and gliding over flats. The boots are flexible and connect to the ski with a single metal bar under the toe. Nordic skiers do not use the edge of the ski to navigate around a corner. Instead, they take fast baby steps to get around the curve.
All of that is more difficult on artificial snow.
“We go very fast on the downhills,” said Jessie Diggins, an Olympic gold medalist and US Nordic ski team member. “I’ve gotten up to 76kph on the downhills on manmade snow, and it is scary because most of our race trails are built for natural snow, which is a little softer. You have a little more padding on the side of the trail where you have snowbanks, not just drop-offs.”
“I think it is getting a little more dangerous, and I’ve noticed at the World Cup when it is manmade snow, it is scary because instead of sliding on snow you’re sliding on ice,” added Diggins, who was the overall World Cup winner for the 2020-2021 season. “I think we’re seeing a higher percentage of falls. I feel it is a little more dangerous now.”
The International Ski Federation (FIS), which oversees ski racing around the world, keeps track of injuries going back to 2006.
The FIS Surveillance System was created to “monitor injury patterns and trends in the different FIS disciplines” and to “provide background data for in-depth studies of the causes of injuries.”
The reports track Alpine skiing, freestyle skiing, snowboarding and ski jumping, but there is no data for injures in the Nordic events, which include cross-country skiing, biathlon and Nordic combined.
Asked about the concerns about artificial snow, the FIS did not respond.
There are other factors in play.
British skier Andrew Young was on the fourth lap of a 15km mass start cross-country ski race in Sweden in January when he crashed on the downhill and went through a fence, breaking his leg. He was rushed to the hospital and struggled through six weeks of recovery time, which ended his hopes for last year’s World Championships.
Young said climate change has “definitely changed” cross-country skiing, but it is not the only reason the sport is more dangerous.
Racecourses are shorter partly due to limited snow, but also to bring the skiers through the arena more often for the spectators and television cameras.
“Shorter loops mean more corners, which means more crashes,” Young said.
Erik ten Hag’s first competitive game as manager tomorrow should herald a fresh start for Manchester Untied, but familiar failings behind the scenes have made the Dutchman’s difficult job an almost impossible one. Ten Hag’s predecessor Ralf Rangnick signed off from his miserable caretaker spell last season by stating that the United squad needed “open heart surgery” and up to 10 new players after laboring to a sixth-placed finish in the English Premier League. So far, only three new faces have arrived at Old Trafford — Lisandro Martinez, Tyrell Malacia and Christian Eriksen. The United squad is arguably weaker than last season, with
Taiwanese infielder Chang Yu on Saturday made his major league pitching debut when he was pulled off third base in the bottom of the eighth to preserve the Tampa Bay Rays’ bullpen in their 9-1 loss to the Detroit Tigers. Chang’s chance to take the mound came as the Tigers’ scoring was already out of hand for the Rays. Detroit mounted a rare offensive outburst, leading Rays manager Kevin Cash to preserve his pitchers by allowing Chang to throw an inning. He retired Willi Castro on what the scoreboard called a 40mph curveball, but Detroit’s Jonathan Schoop hit the next pitch for
Australia’s Donna Lobban said she and her Scottish husband Greg Lobban would not be signing “divorce papers” after she beat him in mixed doubles squash competition at the Commonwealth Games on Friday. Donna Lobban and her partner, Cameron Pilley, came back from a game down to win 9-11, 11-8, 11-8 and reach the semi-finals in Birmingham, England. The defending champion, 35, said she was braced for her husband’s reaction. “I might have to put up with him being in a terrible mood for a while, but if I had lost it would have been him putting up with me being in a
Taiwan scored 15 runs in four innings against Italy in their final game in the opening round of the WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup in Tainan on Tuesday night. The 15-0 victory lifted Taiwan’s record in the tournament played at the Asia-Pacific International Baseball Stadium to four wins and one defeat before they play in the super round starting today. Taiwan wasted no time on Tuesday, with Ou Tzu-chiao singling to center field while Wu Sheng-zhi opened the scoring in the bottom of the first. After a scoreless second inning, Taiwan put up video game numbers sending nine players to the home plate
RSS