The current and future state of World Cup downhill – Part II

FIS Technical Expert Atle Skårdal gives Ski Racing Media an update on the newest scientific research on downhill jumps.

The scientific approach

With the goal of reducing serious injuries in downhill racing, a computer program that estimates the skiers’ trajectory on downhill jumps is being developed, which, in turn, will help organizers design good jumps with safe profiles. This work is conducted by an international project group consisting of sports scientists from the University of Innsbruck’s Institute for Sports Science and from the Norwegian School of Sport Science, FIS Race Directors Hannes Trinkl and Jean-Philippe Vulliet (for Women’s World Cup speed events), as well as the local organizing committees involved in the project. The project is financed through the FIS Injury Surveillance Prevention Program.

FIS Alpine Technical Expert, Atle Skårdal, tells Ski Racing about the project:

“The point of the project is to develop a program where one can estimate fairly accurately, with the use of GPS coordinates and the exact speed on the jump, the flight path of the racer. Then you can see what height the skier comes in from before the landing – that is the critical issue. If the height of the skier up in the air is too high, the pressure and the force of the landing will have an enormous impact on the skier. And if, in addition, the terrain isn’t completely level, or a bit angled towards one side, that will clearly be a factor for increased risk and injuries.”

In addition to estimating the racers’ trajectory, the program will also provide valuable yearly information about when downhill race courses are shaped and prepared for competitions. Snowcats with modern equipment can – with the help of GPS readers, coordinates and this program – recreate the exact same jumps that proved to work well in the same course the previous year, which eliminates having to start from scratch every year.

During the 2022 season, the project group has worked on the men’s and women’s World Cup race hills in Val Gardena-Gröden, Zauchensee, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Kitzbühel, Crans-Montana and Kvitfjell. The plan is to continue with more venues next year and possibly continue with some of the locations already visited this season, as the group has not been able to cover all jumps simultaneously. “It’s a fairly extensive job, with video analysis and measurements with GPS coordinates and so on, in order to get enough data to feed into the system to allow the flight path to be calculated accurately,” Skårdal explains.

Speed, snow conditions and other aspects might vary each year, however. Skårdal says that as long as they use the same gate-placement as the previous year, it is likely that the speed will stay mainly the same. In addition, if the conditions were relatively slow and poor one year, they have to add a safety buffer for when there are the most extreme conditions to be on the safe side. “This project is aimed at increasing safety, so it’s important that the recommendations from the project group are on the safe side and that one does not try to wedge in the absolute maximum length for the jumps.”

Skårdal, who was the former FIS chief race director for the Women’s World Cup until he changed FIS positions in 2019, knows the extreme workload, heavy responsibilities – and sometimes pressure – involved in the work as a race director. He describes how a race director continuously evaluates speed, length of jumps and other factors, and he pinpoints that the race directors do their very best, in all situations, to make good decisions and ensure safe races. But, he says, race directors can also sometimes make mistakes, “as they are only human.”

Skårdal expresses that work for increased safety in international speed events is a continuous battle:

“There is a lot that could have been done, for example, with the ski equipment, which could have increased security, but nobody is very keen on going in that direction because they know they will ski a turn a bit differently and will get a different feel, and not many are interested in doing that, unfortunately. So there is always a battle, a lot of different interests, and it’s always difficult. But we can’t give up.”

For similar reasons, the Injury Surveillance Prevention Program has difficulty finding enough funding to do projects like the current one. “For many, it’s not so fun to work with safety projects because it usually means working a bit counter-productively when it comes to performance. And that is not so popular in this environment,” Skårdal says.

Like it or not

With so much work needed to make a jump work safely, some might wonder why a jump like the Kitzbühel finish jump just can’t be removed altogether. However, the jump plays an important role in slowing down the racers before they come into the finish area:

“If they have to come out of the downhill position, they slow down immediately. We don’t want to go from the last pitch in the downhill position to the finish. Then we are even faster there. So, for sure, we have to try something to bring them out of the downhill position. And we will find a solution that works,” Trinkl explains.

How do the skiers feel about the changes being made in a classic downhill like “die Streif”?

“The real downhillers are not so happy,” Trinkl says with a laugh. “You know, they want to have it tough.” He points out, however, that FIS and the organizers need to take into consideration the starting field overall, including racers that are there for the first time and racers who are tough, but still not the toughest in the field.

“It’s tough enough in Kitzbühel. Kitzbühel will always be tough, so, for sure, nobody wins there as a rookie. But we cannot forget that the downhillers are true downhillers. They want to be on a really tough course. We have to walk this fine line and find a good way that works for everybody. But the most important thing is safety and to avoid crashes. We don’t want to have crashes,” Trinkl states explicitly.

What about Skårdal, the two-time super-G World Champion (1996 and 1997) and silver medalist in the 1993 World Championship downhill? Does he think the athletes in general appreciate the work that is being done?

“I am pretty sure they do, even though they might not say so. There’s a lot of testosterone in this system, and there are some tough guys, and it isn’t so common that a downhill racer says it goes too fast or too far or whatever. But I think that in their minds they are fairly happy that someone tries to keep things under control, because they don’t like to get injured either.”

Trinkl, the 2001 World Champion and 1998 Olympic bronze medalist in downhill, thinks the athletes and the sport have evolved tremendously since his racing days some 20 years ago:

“The boys are in really amazing physical shape. So they’ve improved. They are really good skiers. They are getting better and better. They are really strong mentally, and also, all the material is moving forward. Then we for sure get more speed, especially on turns. It is not just the straight speed. The G-forces are much higher than they were in the past.”

And so, with the improvement of skiing ability and equipment, leading to increased speed and G-forces, comes the need for adjustments in race-hill profiles, course set and safety measures.

Crossing borders

Another change for the men’s and women’s World Cup downhill racers for the 2022-23 ski season is the planned addition of early-season downhill competitions on the brand new Matterhorn course at the foot of the mighty mountain known in Switzerland as Matterhorn and in Italy as Cervino. Zermatt, Switzerland and Cervinia, Italy will be the host towns for the first ever alpine World Cup races to cross national borders.

The course will start in Switzerland. While waiting for the completion of a new cable car towards the top section by Klein Matterhorn, the fall 2022 men’s start will have to be lowered from the previously planned start at 3,900 meters (12,795 feet), down to 3,700 meters (12,140 feet). The race hill, designed by the Swiss 2010 Olympic downhill champion Didier Défago, ends in Cime Bianche in Cervinia, Italy at 2,835 meters (9,300 feet). Two men’s and two women’s downhill races are planned to take place over two weekends, probably in late October and early November, after the traditional season opener in Soelden, Austria, according to a January, 2022 statement by FIS. The actual World Cup competition schedule for next season will be confirmed at the FIS Congress at the end of May, according to Skårdal.

There have been mixed feelings among people involved with the World Cup tour regarding whether it is a good idea with such a high-altitude, demanding downhill course partially on a glacier so early in the season. Some skiers argue that it will be difficult to find locations for full-length, high-quality downhill training before such early race dates. Others, including FIS, think it will be great to add downhill races to the World Cup schedule at that time of year.

The involvement of FIS in the development of a new race hill is vital, and FIS race directors Trinkl and Vulliet were on site for an inspection of the proposed race location in August, 2021.

What are Trinkl’s first impressions of the new Matterhorn race hill?

“It’s very interesting. We will see what’s going on with all the new designs and what they are trying to do. They have to clean the rocks on some spots, and also on the glacier we know there are a lot of crevasses, so it will be interesting. I have been there just for the first inspection.

“I have a first line in mind, but we’ll see what’s going on. We had no snow on the lower part off of the glacier. I want to see what it looks like there with snow, and then I can give some answers,” Trinkl says. Another inspection will take place this spring, where both the race course design and necessary safety measures will be evaluated.

As the World Cup season has come to an end, it’s time for the race directors, FIS, all organizers, teams, various supporting staff and – not the least – the racers to focus on the work needed to make the upcoming season an even better one. The search for the best solutions is ongoing. And for the FIS race directors, those have to be the safest ones.