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The Austrian runs towards the net on the descent from Val-d’Isère, and simply disappears. The scene brings back the worst memories, especially among fans of Swiss skiing.
The fall of Nicole Schmidhofer: the Austrian crossed the safety nets at high speed.
Video: SRF
She fights for words. Look at the hole in the safety net as stunned as any ordinary television viewer. But then Tina Weirather says what many should think. “There are really, really bad images,” says the Liechtenstein woman, an expert in women’s ski racing on Swiss television. And he adds in a low voice: “Silvano Beltrametti.”
It is a shocking moment of the rare type that occurs in the descent of women in Val-d’Isère. Nicole Schmidhofer, the Austrian and co-favorite in this first sprint of the season, is on the road with start number 11. In the end, Corinne Suter waits for the times, the Swiss is in the lead. Schmidhofer reaches a key point, a jump followed by a turn to the right and compression, in which light and shadow alternate. Suter also reported problems there.
Schmidhofer was the destination of the place: the forces push him directly towards the safety net, at about 100 km / h; the distance is so small that there is no possibility of reaction. And then the amazing thing: the net, which is built in such a way that everything should bounce off it, breaks and Schmidhofer immediately disappears behind it. Supervisors rush in, retrieve skis and poles, and prepare to repair the hole so the race can continue. From the driver? There’s nothing to see. No signal. There are no signs of life.
And all that can be seen is this hole – the crash site on a right turn.
Photo: screenshot
Swiss ski fans, in particular, know how bad it can end. Almost exactly 19 years ago Silvano Beltrametti had an accident on the same slope, the Oreiller-Killy in Val-d’Isère. After a driving error, the man from Graubünden slipped into the safety net and broke it with his skis and force, and all that was left to see was this huge hole. “For God’s sake,” muttered Bernhard Russi, then the television expert. Beltrametti crashed into trees and stones and has been a paraplegic since December 8, 2001.
After a few anxious minutes, Schmidhofer gave the go-ahead. She is conscious and may have injured her face, but comparatively lightly, the ORF reports. It takes 20 minutes before she can be transported on the sled, and at the hospital she complains of serious knee problems. On Friday night, the Austrian association announced that there was a suspicion of a torn cruciate ligament and more injuries to the left knee. Schmidhofer’s fall was likely stopped by a second net after the first one broke. Most of all, though, he was lucky that Beltrametti didn’t have: that there were no trees behind the safety nets. Or there were stones. Austria’s female head coach Christian Mitter also used this word, “luck.”
Corinne Suter’s victory is a minor matter in light of this and other violent clashes in the same venue. Also Federica Brignone, Alice McKennis Duran or the Swiss Joana Hählen crashed heavily into the net, the descent was delayed for a long time due to numerous interruptions. In the end, Suter is eleven hundredths faster than Italy’s Sofia Goggia and 20 ahead of surprising American Breezy Johnson.
Suter’s victory overshadows
Schwyz’s now 26-year-old rise continues. Last season she was promoted to “queen of speed”, In the shortened season due to Corona, he achieved no less than eight podium places in Downhill and Super-G and won the World Cup in both disciplines. “After the long break, I was nervous and excited,” she tells SRF. That he’s gotten off to such a start now is “really cool,” says Suter. You consciously tried to find the limit on the track. In the second descent from Val-d’Isère on Saturday, he wants to double. There is also a Super-G on Sunday.
Corinne Suter’s campaign of victory.
Video: SRF
Of the rest of the Swiss women, only Lara Gut-Behrami is eighth in the top ten. Michelle Gisin has to settle for 19th place, however, she has the disadvantage that she immediately follows Nicole Schmidhofer at the beginning and therefore has to wait more than 20 minutes at the starting house. World Cup points also win Priska Nufer (13th), Jasmine Flury (20th) and Juliana Suter (29th).
