Canadian group will send safety recommendations to FIS

“More than 50percent of our elite athletes didn’t compete throughout the season,” says Alpine Canada Alpin’ president Max Gartner. “This is not acceptable in my opinion.”

Injuries, a bane in any sport, have reached a fevered pitch in alpine ski racing and the Canadian squad was among the leaders in sustaining injury. Concern about the injuries and the state of the sport that caused them, fostered a safety symposium in Calgary, hosted by Gartner and Alpine Canada Alpin’ and featuring 40 concerned parties from the national and provencial programs as well as FIS representative Dr. Erich Mueller.

Gartner, among others, is concerned the degree and number of injuries in alpine skiing will guide parents of future stars away from the sport.

Among key-note presenters was Canadian team athlete Kelly VanderBeek, a racer who lost the last two seasons to injury, including her chance to ski at a home country Olympics.

“Athletes right now are suffering consequences they’ll carry with them for the rest of their lives,” said VanderBeek at the start of the symposium. “We’re seeing legs amputated. We’re seeing comas. We’re seeing complete knee dislocations, which is what happened in my case. You’re blowing everything in the knee.”

VanderBeek suggested that some simply rules could help stem the tide of increasing injury. Mouthguards and back braces should be mandatory, she said, helmets should be thicker and downhill suits should be made of a material designed to slow racers a few kph.

“The equipment and the speeds have gotten to a point where, the way we create G-forces in a turn, is beyond the capabilities of the human body and we’re unable to sustain those speeds and those forces, “said VanderBeek. “When something goes wrong, it goes really wrong.”

The World Downhill champion, Canadian Erik Guay, is using some of his prize money to seek a better helmet from outside his sport.

In an interview with the Vancouver Times Colonist Guay suggested alpine ski racing lags behind other sports in helmet safety. He said he has asked two firms to design a helmet for him. “One of them is an NFL supplier. … The other is a Formula One helmet designer, so obviously they have quite a bit of experience in researching head trauma and both are far ahead of anything the alpine community has seen,” Guay said.

The symposium also suggested a rethinking of injected courses. “Twenty years ago you saw a little bit of loose snow around,” says Gartner, “(race courses) looked like a regular ski run. Now it looks like a skating rink. Is it really necessary to have it that icy?”

The short of it is that Alpine Canada Alpin’ could legislate these types of changes within their boarders, but in order to truly make the change to safety they will need the international governing body of ski racing (FIS) to make the changes on a globular scale.

Canada’s women’s coach Hughes Anermoz suggested the timing might be right, telling CBC News that after crashes within a number of European teams, “I think it’s starting to come to their mind that we need to make a big change.”

The symposium will send a list of recommendations to the FIS.

“We have taken a big step forward,” said Gartner.“Safety is a multi-faceted issue that has to be addressed at a number of levels. At the domestic level, we need to communicate these changes and recommendations. At the elite level, we will put together a proposal to present to FIS.”
 
Gartner said a detailed document will be put together outlining key initiatives and recommendations agreed at the two-day summit, alongside a strategy for rolling out those plans at the domestic and international levels.
 
Highlights of the proposals and recommendations agreed at the summit include:
–         Consistent snow preparation: Avoiding the use of water injection when building courses for domestic ski racing
–         Quality course setting: Ski courses in Canada to be set according to conditions, with a focus on reducing speed
–         Jump progression: Specific jump training to be introduced for young Canadian skiers, to improve their skill level
–         Suits: ACA to lobby for different ski suit materials to be used at the elite/World Cup level to increase padding and slow down ski racers
–         Helmets: Alpine Canada Alpin to conduct safety testing of helmets used by national team athletes
–         Mouth guards and back braces: Their use will be strongly recommended at all levels of ski racing
–         Nationwide tracking system for athletes to be introduced to monitor physical testing, injuries suffered by Canadian skiers of all ages
–         Team selection criteria: Young Canadian skiers to be encouraged to race technical events before they focus on downhill racing, which will not commence until age 18. There’s a bigger injury risk factor with downhill racing due to increased speed.
–         Examine use of sleeves and other devices to reduce the risk of knee injuries
–         Improve the management of skiers
 
“It was really good to have representatives of the provincial ski organizations here to be part of this process,” said Gartner.
 
“We’ve made some progress, particularly with how we approach speed events – going from skill development at the lower level to increasing the age at which skiers are eligible to race in downhill to 18. We also want to make sure we create consistent snow conditions, preferably without the use of water injection. The general aim in course setting will be to reduce speed.”
 
At the World Cup level, ski, boot and binding setup has been found to be a significant risk factor for injuries. FIS is working on rule changes and equipment modification in those areas, but they are not expected to be introduced some time after the 2011-12 season.
 
“The big thing we are waiting for is equipment changes,” said Gartner. “We have to be patient because it takes a little more time to implement these things at the international level.”
 
ACA also plans to lobby FIS to change the fabric used in the suits worn by elite skiers. More padding and a reduced emphasis on making the suits as aerodynamic as possible could help to reduce injuries, said Gartner.
 
VanderBeek said she is optimistic that the proposals put forward at the meeting will make a difference.  “I have come to realize that there’s no silver bullet when it comes to safety,” she said VanderBeek, “But I’m very hopeful looking forward.”
 

Kelly VanderBeek crash in DH training Dec. 17, 2009 and hasn’t raced since. Gepa photo