WM in Garmisch - safety concerns highlighted by Lindsey Vonn

A snowHead

Very interesting comments I've just read made by LV on her Facebook page

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Sleipnir, Hope it all goes well for them. I will never forget watching Ulli Maier killing herself on the Kandahar, after she had done exactly the same thing as LV and complained about the icy condition of the course! Have to admit that I'm surprised that it's so icy though given the current temperatures in Garmisch.

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

seeing the amount of times shes landed on her back bottom this season maybe shes just getting the excuses ready for losing her title..

Though I presume GAP has had the same warm clear weather as everyone else, I'll be there later in the week, but not before the super G so won't be able to confirm the conditions untill its been on TV anyway.

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Sleipnir, She has a habit of making such statements - whether it is gamesmanship or not I'm not sure.

The technical delegates will oversee every step of the preparation and running of the tournament . The current leading TD for the women's circuit is Aksel Skaardal and Stankella is also one of the TDs so there are ex-racers from the top level overseeing everything. Skaardal has been very hands on - he was actually on the piste at Zwiesel yesterday helping maintain the slope during the second run when it was very soft.

I remember her saying something similar before the Vancouver races last year and again sometime earlier this year about one of the race venues. They are racing on the Kandahar 1 piste and I know the preparation over the last couple of weeks has been very intensive. I've not heard of any of the other racers complaining, men or women. Yes, it is going to be hard and fast, the early runners may have an advantage if it is as warm tomorrow midday, but that piste holds its cover really well.

She is running at No.22 in the Super-G tomorrow, so she has plenty of time for feedback. There are only 49 runners so blink and you might miss it! wink

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The projections on the ski jump at the opening ceremony look good..though not sure about the odd bavarian parade under it.

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Last year I skied the hahnenkamm course 3 days after the mens downhill. That was tough, icy and hard.

Last weekend I skied the course LV is talking about. Not as steep as the hahnenkamm but harder and icier as described, really, really tough. Wouldn't be so bad but I didn't even mean to ski it, just took a wrong turn. My missus really didn't like it and now has a bruise along mostnof her right thigh to remember it by.

When skiing i normally like a challenge, but I'd avoid that again like the plague.

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Samerberg Sue, it could well be a bit of gamesmanship or even genuine concern, especially after she hit her noggin in a training run recently at Hintereit, Austria - it really did look quite nasty (especially in slo mo) Shocked

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=197160863630027

smithski talking of Kitz, a friend of mine who is very good skier (junior racer when he was young, Austrian Staatlich geprüfter Skilehrer) was at the race this year and he was telling us how icy it was - literally blue ice only covered by a dusting of snow. To give you an idea, he said that he tried to traverse across the race track to a ski hut directly across from where he was stood and he ended up 200m below the hut as he simply could not get any grip Shocked

You gotta take your hat of the both the girls and boys when it comes to racing, but where do you draw the line in terms of safety - I see that the Canadians have raised concerns in general about the number of major accidents and injuries this season. None of us want to see another Ulli Maier accident

Going back to Garmisch, certainly they have the right people involved, especially ex-racers like Aksel Skaardal (as Sue said, as Technical Director for the ladies) but sometimes you get the feeling that there is a lot of outside pressure placed upon these people by the organisers, the World's TV and media. I only hope that they have the strength to say "No" if things are not as they should be

Schau ma mal (as they say around these parts)

After all it is free

Steilhang, I also saw Uli Meier's accident and a lot of changes were made both to the hill and the safety issues as a result.

I read an article in one of the Austrian papers where it quotes some of the girls - one saying it might be better to use ice skates for example (Fenniger I think). It's gamesmanship pure and simple. There are a whole variety of levels competing tomorrow so we'll see what happens. Some how I don't see LV saying no I'm not skiing because it isn't safe, do you? But she could just possibly blame the lack of a medal or a win on a "I told you so" type thing. Don't get me wrong, I like LV and do not see her as a typical North American skier, but she is under tremendous pressure to produce the winning goods every time and that is just not realistic.

papasmurf, we's proud of our living heritage and traditions so we show like to show it off as often as we can - Laughing

I missed that bit, what was it the local Trachten groups or the Musikkappelle (Brass Bands to those oop North like! rolling eyes

)?

Loved the opening speech by the Chancellor - Frau Merkel doing her bit to support the bid for the 2018 Olympics I presume! Not putting too much (more) pressure on Felix Neureuther and Maria Riesch was she Laughing

Samerberg Sue, just read on my fb page that Primoz has skied the track and said it is really icy Shocked

I am almost not wanting to watch, i really really hope all the girls come back in one piece Sad

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Samerberg Sue, it was lots of people dressed like the wood carvings that most of southern germany seems obessed with, I presume some sort of Bavarian folklore. Watched a programme on BR about it and Felix and Maria were looking very uncomfortable about the pressure to win, also had christian Neureuther (felixes dad?) on and kept rubbing it in that he didn't win..

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Lindsey is normally not complaining, so anyone who didn't have chance to go down this one, can't really say much about it. It looks scary on TV, but when you actually go down the course, things are really different. Until now, I was never scared going down the course (even Kitzbuhel, Alta Badia or Val d'Isere), but today, I had really bad feeling. Hell let's admit this... I knew it's icy, but when I went down first time, I felt bad, when I was going back up with gondola, thinking I will need to do it again, but this time with 15 or 20kg back (worth more then 20.000eur), I was scared like hell. I hate to admit this, but I really was.
It's like setting ice rink in vertical. I have race skis, prepared properly, I know how to ski, yet it was still poo-poo**y. Today, ice skates would be much better tool then skis for this track. It's so fuc***ing icy that you just slide without chance to stop... unless you consider safety nets as your stopping method Smile

I was talking with few skiers and ex-skiers today and yesterday here in GAP, and everyone agree this is totally crazy. I hope they would do something about this, but I doubt they will. Course is injected, and then they poured a whole lot of water on top of it, so it's really pure ice, no snow, from fence to fence. Course will last totally untouched till last racer, but I'm pretty sure top skiers looked like they don't know how to ski on this course. And in my mind, this is not greatest commercial for our sport. When World champion looks like, she doesn't know how to ski, there is something wrong.
Now off to find Swix guy, to make my skis even sharper for tomorrow, since I don't wanna die there Smile

Especially considering, I have to get through Freiefal tomorrow... and it's far far from easy and nice looking thing... unless I do it, like I did it 2 years ago, when I just jumped over it Laughing

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Just came back from wax rooms, and latest news is, that they already sent pisten bullies to women course. So obviously they noticed it was "a bit" too icy today Smile

You know it makes sense.

All I can say is those ladies are better men than I am Shocked

I wouldn't go down there for a gold pig, never mind at the speeds they are going at.

Very Happy

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

Thanks primoz. For those of us who enjoy the racing, it's nice to have a guy 'on the inside'.......it makes me sound intelligent when I tell my friends here in Austria precisely what is going on behind the scenes

Keep up the good work. And watch out for those icy bits........that's all of the piste then!! wink

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Women course will be much easier for me to survive now... I guess Smile

On the other side there's still men races too, and I just talk with Mike Kertesz and all he said was "pha pisten bullies! No pisten bullies on men course till end of WCH. It's not even icy, it's just grippy" Laughing

Well my skis are now done by real WC tech, not just by ex one (read: me), so I hope life will be a bit easier tomorrow, when I will be going down the men's SG course Laughing

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Sleipnir, More insider infomation. Just had a text from TJ who is racing for GB at bib 44 tomorrow. He said "It is f...king icy and very bumpy!" He said that about the Lake Louise WC DH track too though.
I'll let you know how it skied on race day straight from a competetor. Top 30 would be a great result for him.

primoz, If you take any photos of TJ at bib 44 please let me know. Also doing DH. SC & GS.

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

primoz, I've just taken a look at your photos from today - nice work!! I really like the one of the US coach who had climbed up a tree to get a better view of the racers

http://www.photo.si/photos/spo_skiing_20110208nw_17077.jpg

You've got to give it to the Yanks, they look for every advantage they can find. wink

PS - Lizz Goergl is starting to become a favourite of mine. She looks like she really enjoys her racing (and singing!) and from the TV coverage seems to be very down to earth and friendly. Glad she won a gold

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primoz If you don't mind me asking, what do you do there? Are you there in an official capacity

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elgrego, Primoz is one of the best sport photographers and used to be a top level racer himself, so his word is the word!

After all it is free

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Vonn gave a very candid interview on Universal Sport after the race. She basically admits to being scared out of her wits, and had a headache all day yesterday. She looked like she had just woke up and told you need to ski, and you're late to the start line. She should just skip the rest of the WC races in Garmisch and heal up. I was happy to see Mancuso charge the course. She was very graciuos afterwards.

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Ok, thank you kooky and primoz Very Happy

I certainly believe his word, you could see how icy it was on the tv coverage.

Sounds like a good job to me too Wink

Does anyone examine the fitness of athletes to say it's safe to compete? Vonn had a brain trauma last week and she still isn't right, she did the dh practice in full ski jacket and pants today so she wouldn't pick up too much speed. Athletes themselves may take risks beyond what is acceptable especially as it's a big event but this sort of thing should be independently assessed.

You know it makes sense.

There are team doctors, but as far as I know, there's noone from FIS, who could tell someone can start or not.
I had ride up on hill today with Lindsey's serviceman so we had a bit of chat (mostly about skis and stuff... including what Head's KERS really is Laughing

) and he said she was out there yesterday just to see if she can do anything or not. But with speed 20-30km/h faster, things might look different. So for now (at least on morning before today's SC race) she was suppose to start also DH, but that's about it.

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

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Hehe I don't think KERS discussion is for this thred, but let's make it short... it's marketing thing only. Well if you read FIS rules, this is clear anyway, since any mechanical thing (motors, rockets and also things like KERS... at least the way it's marketed) is strictly forbidden in or on skis. Ok enough about KERS Wink

No I didn't get her fall. I was standing all the way on op (around 15 or 20sec I would say), so I just saw it when looking down. And it looked pretty bad, even if I was few 100m away. So yeah, I'm glad she's fine. It looked much worse then it obviously ended.
For today's DH things were a bit hectic. When I was riding up with gondola I got sms that no photographers and TV are allowed to enter course inspection. So we were all waiting up under Troglhang with pretty much no further info. Around 10 we were finally allowed to enter course, slipping down on side of course escorted by Mike. So I just picked position, where I was thinking to check it first, and it was just above Eishang... actually on gate when they were getting out of Alte quele part. Nothing special, but also not all that bad position. It's gonna be worse tomorrow on women's DH. There's not many positions, and we were just told we will be even more limited with out movement tomorrow. So we will see Smile

Otherwise track was getting slower and slower today. On morning it was still at least a bit icy, by the end of race, it was only wet nothing more. But in reality, guys with numbers around 40 or 50, didn't have any chance anyway. For top guys, it was pretty much same. First few numbers had some better conditions, but on the end, there were still top guys up front, not someone with number 1 or 2.

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out of interest Vonn got roundly boo'd for not turning up for the bib draw. She also seems to have been doing a media damage limitation move after her comments on the course

Help!!

WM in Garmisch - safety concerns highlighted by Lindsey Vonn

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