Safety/Lanzinger

I feel I need to state my opinion on the whole safety/Mattias Lanzinger issue before its too late. 

When the accident happened there were a lot of rumors about how and what FIS should do and why the accident happened.  

FIS for some reason seems to still blame the equipment for these matters, which is ludicrous.  You can't change the equipment.  There will always be ways to bend the rules and we will seek out every possible way to make ourselves faster if it be through equipment and/or physically.  That's what we do, we push the limits of our bodies and see how fast we can go.  If the FIS pursue the skis it would have to be deeper than the radius regulations.  

There will always be danger, it is inherent to our sport.  If you look at the pinnacle of the sport, World Cup ski racing, everyone is trying to see how fast and hard they can go.  Danger is present.  So what do you do?  Stop the danger aspect?  If you do ski racing wouldn't be ski racing!  It is tough to say but accidents like these are part of ski racing.  It has happened as long as it has existed.

The best thing the FIS can do is check and recheck safety!  There have been several problems this year and it is mostly due to simple things people can change.  Mac and Buders crashes could have been avoided if the course prep was better.  The final jump at kitz was extremely sketchy.  Coming off the Hausberg there was a huge hole right where you had to turn which could have easily have been fixed.  There also were also rumors that Kitz purposely put that hole there.  Finley Mickel and Ondre Bank snapped their legs off the final jumps in Kvitfjell and Kitz.  The jumps were poorly formed. 

Lanzis crash could have been avoided if they changed the course set.  From the beginning racers were landing right by the gate.  Once you took off from that jump there would be no way to change your trajectory.  We could have fixed this if the changed the course set so it brought us slower into the jump.  I guess this issue was bought up in the FIS conference as well but I think it didn't get much attention.  People just kept coming up with excuses and placing blame on someone else.  

People blame it on the lack of a proper helicopter but there was no way to get him to a hospital in time if they had one there.  Lanzi's injury was so severe it would be tough to save his leg even if they had the proper safety and exit procedures in place.  The closest proper hospital in Oslo was just too far away!  

It is tough to talk about this.  We can all argue about what could and should have been done.  But in my opinion it is up to simple safety measures.  Check and recheck before you send the best athletes in the world down these pistes.  We will always push the limits and there is no stopping that.  

My major injuries

(the list is small compared to most ski racers)

Injury/Place/Reason

1. Broken Tibia-Altenmarkt, Austria-Poor tactical decision

2. Strained Shin-Tarvisio, Italy-Poorly shaped jump

3. Compressed L4-L5 Disc-Val Gardena, Italy-Poor tactical decision