They want separate safety straps to be mandatory for downhill ski bindings.
Planican The terrifying accident seen at the World Championships on Wednesday is bringing changes to ski jumping, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation NRK tells.
According to NRK, the International Skiing Federation (FIS) is considering a special safety harness that would enable descent in situations where the binding of the downhill ski fails.
For an experienced Slovenian Peter Prevcille this is exactly what happened. The back binding of Prevc’s right ski failed during the aerial flight during Suurmäki practice. The ski immediately rose to shoulder level, then disappeared below, and the 30-year-old bald eagle instantly became a passenger.
Prevc controlled the air flight as well as he could in the suddenly changed conditions, but still hit the descent slope of HS138 looking dangerous.
The jumper who recklessly rolled to the bottom of the mountain got a concussion in the accident and hurt his back and side.
Leader of the competition Sandro Pertile told NRK that FIS will put seat belts on the agenda already at its spring meeting. Based on initial information, Pertile believes that Prevc’s fall was caused by a “technical problem” – in other words, a tire failure.
He adds that the sport’s umbrella organization must take care of its athletes and never underestimate what can happen.
“We have been thinking about this for a few months. Straps and seat belts are two elements that must be considered mandatory.”
A former hill jumper working as an expert for NRK Johan Remen Evensen consider seat belts as a tool to avoid similar accidents.
“It weighs nothing and takes an extra 2.5 seconds to attach. It’s the cheapest insurance an athlete can have,” he says.
Evensen’s mentioned strap keeps the ski in place in situations where, for example, the binding comes off. The ski rises a little, but you can safely descend with it.
Norway’s Daniel-André Tande was seriously injured on the Planica airstrip in March 2021.
Second former Norwegian ski jumper Anders Bardal believes, like Evensen, that separate safety belts should be mandatory for downhill skiing.
“The worst thing that can happen to a ski jumper is that the ski comes quickly [vasten hyppääjää] and disappears again,” he says to NRK.
A former top jumper working as an expert for Yle Janne Ahonen saw the accident from a few different angles and noticed the rear tie coming off or falling apart.
“It keeps the ski in balance when jumping. Now the ski was able to come behind the shoulder. Then we came down on wheels,” says Ahonen Mightily on the website.
Norway’s ski jumping leader Clas Brede Bråthen finds parallels in Prevc’s accident on Wednesday Daniel-André Tanden to a serious accident.
“It was a very ugly fall and reminded me of what happened here with Daniel,” he tells NRK.
Tande fell on the Planica airstrip in March 2021. The jumper, who broke his collarbone and punctured his lung in the accident, recovered from his injuries in the hospital, initially in a coma. Tande returned to the World Cup the very next season.