Death of a young racer in Val d’Isere

A snowHead

Unfortunately, young racer, Margot Simond, training for the Red Bull Alpine Park event in Val d’Isere died today. The event has been cancelled understandably.

https://skiracing.com/u18-slalom-champion-margot-simond-dies-in-crash-at-red-bull-alpine-park/

A snowHead

This is very sad and quite shocking. So talented and so young. Cant imagine how her family and the race community must be feeling. Crying or Very sad

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

tragic and very sad.

didn't a young Italian girl die in similar circumstances, either at the start of this or the close of last season?

You need to Login to know who's really who.

Awful, RIP.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

You'll need to Register first of course.

The event sounds highly dangerous including a tunnel with barely enough room for two skiers and featuring an 10 meter jump inside. Margot died instantly when she hit the start of the tunnel.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

People seem to demand more and more extreme stuff - and Red Bull feed that demand. Deaths are inevitable and especially sad when it's someone so young.

After all it is free

Well you can see the promo video here. Not a lot of protection at that tunnel entrance so presumably like skiing into a brick wall.

http://youtube.com/v/UdlLGBYLdKA?si=GjLfR1yJqfXrGcan

@Dave of the Marmottes, thanks, the jump is on the second tunnel but that is not important. Not sure which tunnel she collided with though. They are supposed to be two skiers at a time on the course afaiks and the tunnel(s) serves as a kind of chicane.

It, of course, goes without saying that it is absolutely devastating for her family and my only reason for commenting is that the course does not appear to be safe, at least at race speeds for a young skier.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

I think the video is from the event last year, the course this year was probably different.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

But people want to watch "unsafe" stuff, don't they?

snow reports

@Origen, and people want to do it as well.

Very sad for all concerned, and I would definitely expect a higher level of protection on some of the solid walls, but I would be surprised if any participant hadn't considered the risks.

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

So sad but also sadly inevitable.

Red Bull Rampage MTB event is just nuts and there have already been some horrendous injuries. I've been refusing to watch it the last few years as someone is bound to die.

A snowHead

@garfy1971, from the look of what they are trying to do, and not withstanding the tragic outcome of the accident, I wouldn't say that its a particularly 'extreme' layout - there's nothing in it that would look particularly consequential in other tournaments like the Kings/Queens courses or any FIS slopestyle course.

A snowHead

@leggyblonde, the street downhill stuff is just as bonkers as Rampage.

@Richard_Sideways, I guess the difference with Nines etc. is that it's not a race and skiers mostly aren't heading directly towards a sheer wall.

In things like this I tend to lean towards the "consenting adults can do as they please" side of things. The difficulty is when those people are still young ,or where they have sponsors who they feel obliged to please. I watched an interview with multiple IndyCar champ Dario Franchitti and he talked about the death of fellow racer Dan Wheldon and said he wished that the drivers had spoken up before the race as they knew it wasn't safe to race at that track in those cars. It is tricky to tread the line in these matters.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@SnoodyMcFlude, I watched that interview too, and yes it's a tricky one, I know Nikki Lauda was vocal about the issues with racing at the Nurburgring, the race he crashed. The documentary 'The Crash Reel' covers it very well too, particularly the long tail of injury (particularly head injury) for these athletes and the expectation and duty of responsibility their sponsors have.

I've just finished watching the Natural Selection Tour on Redbull TV. The snowboarding one has been running for 5 years now and its now a very slick operation running out of Revelstoke, this is the first year for the skiing one and they ran it in Alaska, and it did have a little bit of a sketchy feel about it. Nobody was hurt, but there was some pretty substantial falls and the snowpack wasn't particularly stable, and you could tell in the tentativeness of some of the riders.

You need to Login to know who's really who.

some more details:

"A few hours after the accident that claimed the life of young skier Margot Simond, which occurred shortly before 1 p.m. on Thursday during training prior to a competition organized by Red Bull in Val-d'Isère (Savoie), an investigation was opened by the Albertville public prosecutor's office. It has been entrusted “for the moment” to the CRS des Alpes. When contacted, the Albertville public prosecutor, Benoît Bachelet - also a trailer driver and former top-level sportsman (field hockey player) - declined to comment further on the circumstances surrounding the fatal accident.
At this stage of the investigation, which has just begun, I have nothing to add,” he explained. Apart from making assumptions, I have nothing concrete to say.” According to several corroborating sources, Margot Simond arrived at high speed on a jump at the end of the course. Her head then collided violently with the entrance to the snow tunnel built for the event. She suffered a fatal whiplash injury. When contacted, Red Bull France declined to comment further on this tragedy on its course, described as “ultra-creative and demanding”. The organizer referred us to his press release issued on Friday. It stated that it had learned “with great sadness (...) of the death of the talented young athlete, Margot Simond, in a skiing accident”, without detailing the circumstances of the accident."

-- so it sounds like padding around the tunnel wouldn't have helped

Another source says she missed the last turn in the slalom which is why she arrived too fast on the jump - her landing from the jump would have been some way past the entrance of the tunnel - in theory. She suffered a broken neck in the collision with the snow wall.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@davidof, all speculation, but why would proper netting/padding not have helped?

You'll need to Register first of course.

@leggyblonde, if the suggestion is a whiplash injury, padding is unlikely to have mitigated the effect of the accident, as its a separation injury to the spinal column not a blunt trauma to the head. Before HANS became standard in a lot of motorsport, it was a much more prevalent cause of death in racing accidents.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

@Richard_Sideways, If "Her head then collided violently with the entrance to the snow tunnel", my guess is that the combination of helmet + snow not being concrete stopped the blunt trauma, but it's still whiplash caused by sudden deceleration of the head in relation to the momentum of the body carrying on. Decent padding should have significantly reduced that deceleration.

After all it is free

What an awful situation for all involved, and very sad for someone to lose their life.

I know there's often reaction to threads on here about such serious topic, with natural sensitivity to those immediately concerned. Learning from it though is extraordinarily valuable I feel.

My view has a motorsport accent as there exists certainly history of significant examination to events like this.

A question for me is just how did a course architectural "feature" come to exist in such perpendicular alignment to trajectory at any point in a speed discipline event ? Thats truly and utterly irresponsible regardless of outcome.
Most courses set for running close to speed/control boundaries should never approach this by design. It can simply never be safe in reality, such a fixed /immovable item with these potential outcome in circumstances.
A look at most courses shows concerted effort to remove competitors from this scenario, they are reliant on that competence to mitigate sequences just like this.

On more serious sports mentioned above, yes they are risky, but with full knowledge of competing persons as to exactly what they are taking on. Motorcycling in the IoM bring one such event, nobody has not understood the severity of risk by the time they get to those events and not on a "created" course either.

Seems like this course has been created unsafe from the start. Sadly they should never have been exposed to that risk, all of the competitors that is.

Perhaps you could understand an air tunnel structure as feature, but not this snow built one in the orientation that it appears here.

@davidof, thanks for the extra information. When I first posted this, I didn’t have any detail on the cause of the incident so I didn’t want to speculate. However, at the back of my mind I was questioning whether the course may have something to do with it. Red Bull do seem to push the boundaries of these things with some of their events.

I know Joan Verdu was due to take part in Red Bull Alpine Park and just a couple of weeks before he hosted his own race (The Mamba Race https://www.lamambanegrarace.com/) which has various obstacles in it - probably much tamer. I was interested to see what Red Bull would do with this format. I’d be also interested at how much Clement Noel was involved as his name was on the event.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

@ecureuil, absolutely

snow reports

There appears to be a promo showing relevant course detail here

http://youtube.com/v/vR45XHiwALY?si=Ub3A8aHr0BGJE_Fq

Why such a blunt object is the question that needs to be asked.

Given descriptions above I'd be surprised if someone isn't prosecuted for this. The french don't mess around with this kind of stuff. Such an unnecessary death. I mean if you die after a very high speed crash in downhill at least you know the discipline is dangerous, but no one expects to be on a course that permits of an impact like this.

You know it makes sense.

Wonder if the French can make some sort of corporate manslaughter charge stick against Red Bull. Problem is they'll probably have had the cut out of a local event co anyway. Wonder what Noel's legal advice is looking like given his name is all over the project?

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

The safety on many events will often be under control of a sanctioning body or similar.

Could FIS be involved in course safety ?

A snowHead

A snowHead

@mountainaddict, The course was skiers’ left of the Verte, partially taking over the ground that is covered by the kids fun run. The authorities bulldozed it pretty quickly after the accident. I can understand why they did that, but in a way surprising as one would have thought investigators would have wanted to have a good look. An awful lot of effort and machinery went into building the course. As I recall there was a similar thing last year but it was badly affected by poor visibility.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Thanks @Ski lots.

You need to Login to know who's really who.

This is the tunnel with the jump just behind, the slalom course was on the open slope

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

If someone tried to put a narrow tunnel with a solid face either side (& above) into a normal FIS World Cup slalom (or downhill) course, racers would surely be up in arms about how dangerous it could be at race speed. Anyone can make a mistake in a turn, particularly in competition. (And was this one intended for head-to-head racing, which would add a further element of risk?).

I wonder if fun piste designers will also have a rethink. The one below Arpette in La Plagne has a 270 degree turn to go back underneath the piste via a short tunnel. The turn will reduce a bit of speed, but it would still be possible for someone at high speed to get it badly wrong.

You'll need to Register first of course.

@ecureuil, when I last did that one it didn't have sheer vertical sides...although it was only about a 4ft tunnel. I think it's very unlikely that anyone is going to be able to come at it with any significant speed due to how tight the big corner is

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Whilst I'm very much in the camp of 'let adults choose if they want to take a risk' I also think that they (we) are entitled to sensible accomodations to minimise the inherent risks of any activity. I do motorcycle track days; tracks are engineered to minimise the risk of injury in the event of a crash since people will, inevitably, fall off from time to time. To me, this course looks rather like putting in a chicane on a race track and lining the crash barriers around it with concrete; no one would do such a daft thing.

I'd rather we didn't get to the point that every course requires some kind of sign off by officialdom (this is already the case for race tracks) but the sheer stupidity of this one is, to me, utterly baffling and likely to create just this kind of formal oversight to prevent future tragedies.

I know some will try and compare this with the Freeride tour and point out the dangers there but that is not a speed-based competition. This was; it was a race with people trying to go as fast as possible. Irrespective of the official verdict I think the organisers need to look at themselves in the mirror and realise that they've facilitated a terrible tragedy.

After all it is free

UK Health and Safety law requires the use of risk assessments in the workplace; whilst strictly not a place of work you’d have thought such a risk assessment would have been needed. I wonder if French law requires the same and if so, what it made of this particular risk. Either way a tragedy still.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

@Blackblade, chicanes with walls exist all over the place, admittedly mostly for car racing but you still have places like the Mountain Course or Macau where bikes are being raced next to solid barriers with no air fencing. Same applies for hillclimbing at the more amateur end of things.

Help!!

Death of a young racer in Val d’Isere

snowHeads Forum Index >>> The Piste