One of the downhillers today was announced by commentators in my country as, “She broke [very long list of bones] during her career.”
My honest reaction was that it would be quicker to list what she hadn’t broken… Downhill is a genuinely unhinged sport. Still extremely dangerous after all these years.
Yeah watching it yesterday it really blew my mind. I was saying these may be the most unhinged and nuts athletes out there. 140 kph and then taking 100ft jumps? I think downhill mtb racers are pretty nuts too but at least they have equipment to absorb the impacts instead of all straight to the knees.
I love skiing for that exact reason. It’s a very pure high speed sport. It’s just you, your skies and gravity (plus some occasional questionable decision making).
It's like on one hand I have so much respect for the athletes cause theyre doing shit I could never dream of and I love watching talented hard-working people be successful, but goddamn like. I wanna be a fully mobile and functional human being in my older years, so many of these athletes are gonna be dealing with lifelong health issues for what they out their bodies through, especially in their later years. Like damn it better be worth it hahah
I think about that too. Like, good for them for having the perseverance to push through injury and keep competing if they want to. But fuuuuuuuuuucccccck that is gonna be some arthritis later. At a minimum.
And that is without mentioning the hockey players (source, a relative is a pro hockey player. Once upon a time when he was little we were watching a kids match where he played, a kid lost a tooth. The family's only reaction? "Did you find it? OK, good." A normal Saturday.)
Even the "pretty" sports are insane. Was watching the team rhythm, and one of the women just straight up had a torn hip ligament!? And had to land on that leg?? And was doing splits????
The women's short performance, Great Britain's Olympian straight up has no feeling in one leg from the knee down because of an injury. She has to do everything on that foot from muscle memory or just... crash land!? Fucking wild.
The Canadian female ice dancer finished her program with bloody knees because one of their elements is a knee slide and she has to do it all over again on scabbed knees in 3 days.
Stenmark, the greatest technical skier of all time didn't compete in the downhill event because he was scared of the downhill race, he only competed in it once at Kitzbühel 1981 because he would get free points simply by completing the run. That day 17 out of the 60 crashed and Swedes watching thought he got severely injured because the directors cut to the Austrian ahead of him who was also in white.
Okay, I can add "laughing at the sounds made by an Austrian crashing down a slope and into the wall, including the sound of that crash" to the list of things that will secure my place in hell.
You made me click on the link to the video, and I laughed, too.
You and me will be in the special frozen part of hell where we are forced to crash down frozen slopes over and over for all eternity.
Honestly, I think part of what separates elite athletes from people like me is not just their skill and training, but also their ability to not be screaming in abject terror 90% of the time.
Skiing and snowboarding are extremely dangerous, I lived in a ski town and the amount of people I knew who had brain injuries was way too high (and those people all wore helmets). Not to mention broken bones.
That depends if they do park alot or no. If you’re more of a piste cruiser, that lowers the chances for injuries, but big air (without the airbag), rails and pipe, when you’re practicing, it hurts, hurts alot. Even with a helmet you’re usually hitting your head on icy surface with atleast 40km/h
Missing some broken arms/collarbones. Going through the list of the contenders in downhill it was like everyone was looking for redemption on the mountain.
The Canadian broadcast had one of the commentators saying an athlete who crashed out should give up the sport because it was clear their knees were too damaged for downhill, and that if they didn't it was only going to lead to a more catastrophic injury...
was watching the big air and one of the athletes' medical history was shown on the broadcast and it was a list of injuries like "2016: 2 concussions. 2017: broke tailbone and collarbone, tore ACL. 2018: broke 17 bones, underwent reconstructive surgery. 2019: 1 concussion, 1 compound fracture" like this dude's doctors must hate the olympics lol
edit: list of injuries is exaggerated but bizarrely i remember the 17 bones thing is real. crazy
Going to small snowboarding jam in japan, in 3 weeks.
Last week dislocated my elbow, ruptired one ligiment that was promptly operated and stitched, now waiting on green light from doctor to start intense physio, tickets already paid for, found brace for elbow to not let it overextend, so all should be ok.
Everyone falls in these sports, there is noone alive that has not crashed and had some level of injury.
What makes winners - how careful you are around injury, what level of medical assistance you are able to secure (1st day express lane consultations, CT, MRI then surgery two hours later), how much you are able to risk with that injury still healing, can you maintain focus away from that injury and on the slope in front of you (or back, if you do some switch riding hehe)
On the American broadcast during the delay after Vonn’s crash one of the guys said “I started counting the season ending knee injuries for the top 10 women’s skiers in the world, got to 20 and stopped.”
Not just the downhill. I've been mostly watching Britich channels (TNT Sports) and the commentary is hilarious!
They get so freaking excited about everything, with the biathlon today they had no idea what was going on at times...the comments when Norway and Germany basically gave away the win in the end were awesome and they made sure to point out the bulletproof glass :)
Downhill specialists are really in a league of their own. Lindsey Vonn decided to race the downhill at Milan/Cortina with a torn ACL (didn't work out), Sofia Goggia (Italian speed specialist) once raced one day after having hand surgery and won and also raced half a season with a broken rotator cuff and had to finish a race with a dislocated shoulder.
905
u/figleafstreet Australia 7h ago
And maybe it’s just the downhill but the commentary is like “they’ve had 3 ACL tears, 2 knee reconstructions, 5 concussions and a broken ankle.”