A British skier crashes by way of picket fencing on a downhill nook and slams right into a pole, breaking his leg. An American hits an icy patch on the backside of a hill and crashes right into a fence, breaking one ski and twisting the opposite, additionally breaking his leg.
One other American, coaching earlier than a biathlon race, slides out on an icy nook and flies off the path right into a tree, breaking ribs and a shoulder blade and punctures a lung.
These weren’t scenes from excessive pace alpine or ski cross occasions. They occurred on cross nation ski and biathlon tracks made with synthetic snow.
Many prime Nordic skiers and biathletes say crashes like these have gotten extra widespread as local weather change reduces the supply of pure snow, forcing racers to compete on tracks with the artifical model. Olympic and World Cup race organizers have come to depend on snow-making gear to create a ribbon of white by way of the hills since pure snowfall is much less dependable.
Artifical snow has a better moisture content material, making it ice up rapidly, skiers and consultants say.
“It may be actually rock laborious on the market and falling can really feel like falling on concrete, and so it does make it a little bit bit extra harmful than if it was pure snow circumstances,” mentioned Chris Grover, head cross nation coach for the U.S. Ski Group.
Some venues even make snow after which retailer it beneath wooden chips by way of the summer time and unfold it round a monitor when it will get chilly. Synthetic snow, welcome as it could be, doesn’t get higher with age. Race organizers ought to take that into consideration when designing programs, skiers and consultants say.
‘Firmer and Quicker’
“It’s fairly universally acknowledged that programs are firmer and sooner than earlier than,” mentioned Gus Schumacher, a member of the U.S. cross nation crew. Whereas racing in France, “there have been a pair crashes the place individuals slipped out on the icy corners as a result of that snow is tremendous unforgiving. Like, it’s actually sharp crystals that don’t bind collectively that properly.”
John Aalberg, a former Olympic cross nation skier who designs Olympic Nordic ski programs, together with for the Beijing Video games, mentioned they all the time contemplate icy circumstances when designing a course. He mentioned a much bigger security problem was the change in race codecs from particular person begins to mass begin races.
“Once you ski one-by-one like they used to do within the ’90s, you might have gnarlyer downhills and corners as a result of they got here one after the other,” he mentioned. “What’s essential when it comes to security is that downhill corners aren’t too tight when it comes to width.”
In contrast to Alpine gear, cross county skis don’t have metallic edges. They’re designed to be skinny and light-weight for climbing hills and gliding over flats. The boots are versatile and hook up with the ski with a single metallic bar beneath the toe. Nordic skiers don’t use the sting of the ski to navigate round a nook. As an alternative, they take quick child steps to get across the curve.
All of that’s tougher on artifical snow.
“We go very quick on the downhills,” mentioned Olympic gold medalist and U.S. Nordic ski crew member Jessie Diggins. “I’ve gotten as much as 76 kilometers per hour (47 mph) on the downhills on artifical snow and it’s scary as a result of most of our race trails are constructed for pure snow, which is a little bit softer. You might have a little bit extra padding on the aspect of the path the place you’ve got snowbanks, not simply drop-offs.”
“I feel it’s getting a little bit extra harmful and I’ve observed on the World Cup when it’s artifical snow, it’s scary as a result of as an alternative of sliding on snow you’re sliding on ice,” added Diggins, who was the general World Cup winner for the 2020-21 season. “I feel we’re seeing a better share of falls. I really feel it is a bit more harmful now.”
The Worldwide Ski Federation, which oversees ski racing all over the world, retains monitor of accidents going again to 2006. The FIS Surveillance System was created to “monitor harm patterns and tendencies within the totally different FIS disciplines” and to “present background information for in-depth research of the causes of accidents.”
The stories monitor Alpine snowboarding, freestyle snowboarding, snowboarding and ski leaping. However there’s no information for injures within the Nordic occasions, which embrace cross nation snowboarding, biathlon and Nordic mixed.
When The Related Press requested if the group stored monitor of crashes in cross nation ski and biathlon races, a FIS spokesman mentioned: “We do monitor accidents throughout our races, however we don’t make our researches public in the meanwhile.”
When requested in regards to the considerations about artifical snow, FIS didn’t reply. Martti Jylha, a Finnish cross nation skier and co-chair of the Athletes’ Fee on the FIS Council, didn’t return messages.
There are different elements in play.
John Morton, a two-time Olympic biathlete, a licensed FIS course inspector and founding father of Morton Trails, a Vermont firm that designs ski trails, mentioned there are worldwide requirements for Nordic ski races. He recalled attending a convention the place they mentioned banking activates quick downhills, however there was resistance from some European officers who mentioned it could make it too straightforward.
“There’s this fixed drive to make it extra thrilling and extra dramatic,” he mentioned. “It’s very clear they need difficult programs, they need to push the athletes to the boundaries.”
In that context, he mentioned, concerns have to be made.
“We’ve got to acknowledge that the best way they have been designed and groomed and constructed for pure snow might need to be modified now as a result of every thing is quicker – the skis are sooner, the wax is quicker,” he mentioned.
Artifical snow “isn’t actually snow in any respect,” mentioned Jim Steenburgh, professor of atmospheric sciences on the College of Utah. “What it’s is water that’s blown by way of nozzles that break up the water into extraordinarily small and tiny droplets that then freeze. Whereas the construction of pure snow is basically totally different.”
Artifical snow has a better water content material so it has a high-density and tends to be actually sturdy, making it good for ski racing, a minimum of for alpine ski racing, he mentioned.
“For alpine snowboarding occasions, pure snow can really be a detriment because the racers desire a tough, icy floor,” he mentioned. “If a storm happens previous to an alpine snowboarding occasion, the pure snow is often faraway from the course. Nordic snowboarding is totally different, nevertheless.”
British skier Andrew Younger was on the fourth lap of a 15-kilometer mass begin cross nation ski race in Sweden in January when he crashed on the downhill and went by way of a fence, breaking his leg. He was rushed to the hospital and struggled by way of six weeks of restoration time, which ended his hopes for the 2021 World Championships.
Younger mentioned local weather change has “undoubtedly modified” cross nation snowboarding, but it surely’s not the one motive the game is extra harmful.
Racecourses are shorter partly as a consequence of restricted snow, but in addition to carry the skiers by way of the world extra usually for the spectators and tv cameras. As Younger put it: “Shorter loops imply extra corners, which suggests extra crashes.”
Soldier Hole Nordic Middle in Utah had about 17 kilometers (10.5 miles) of trails for racing in the course of the 2002 Winter Olympics, in keeping with Luke Bodensteiner, the middle’s normal supervisor. However the shorter loops used for racing lately means they solely want 11 or 12 kilometers (6.8 or 7.4 miles) for the 2030 or 2034 Winter Video games.
They wish to maintain the tracks about 1 meter (3.2 ft) deep to make sure the tracks maintain up, he mentioned. However which means an extended fall when a skier leaves the course.
“The issue I see is when there may be completely no pure snow and only a ribbon of synthetic snow for a race course,” Younger mentioned. “If one thing is then to occur and somebody crashes, the implications of exiting the monitor develop into really fairly severe.”
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