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≡ BORMIO DOWNHILL CRASHES ≡
Five-time Alpine World Cup winner Cyprien Sarrazin of France suffered a bad crash during a Friday Downhill training session in Bormio, Italy, on the famed Stelvio ski course, and was one of two skiers airlifted off the mountain and taken to a hospital.
The French federation released a statement which included:
“Following further examinations, as well as Cyprien’s evolving clinical examination, it has been decided in agreement with the Italian surgeons to operate on Cyprien this evening in order to drain the subdural haematoma.”
A subdural hematoma is a collection of blood that forms between the brain’s dura mater and arachnoid mater, the two layers of the meninges that protect the brain, and can be extremely dangerous. But Sarrazin was not alone, as Italian Pietro Zazzi also crashed; the Italian federation said he had Saturday surgery in Milan for “a compound fracture of the tibia and fibula of his right leg.”
And Swiss Josua Mettler, 26, also crashed Friday; he headed back to Switzerland for examinations for an injured knee.
Sarrazin, 30, led the Downhill qualifying on Thursday, and was stable after his procedure, according to the French federation:
“Following his operation on Friday evening at the Sondalo hospital near Bormio, Cyprien Sarrazin is awake and conscious. His condition is stable. He will be kept under observation for an as yet undetermined period, says Dr. Stéphane Bulle, doctor of the French Alpine ski team.”
The Stelvio course is one of the venues for the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milan and Cortina and has long been celebrated and feared. The Milan Cortina organizers describe it thus:
“It is 3,250m long and has an elevation of 1,010m. At the start, the athletes face a gradient of 63% and the first curves lead to the Salto della Rocca – a leap of 30 metres. Then it’s straight into the Canalino Sertorelli, a diagonal where the skiers gather speed, and then face the Curve degli Ermellini which leads them to the Carcetina diagonal, one of the most challenging and spectacular parts of the course.
“After the diagonal, skiers descend to the Ciuk before hitting the Muro di San Pietro at full speed – a jump of 45 metres with a gradient of 50%. The final two hundred metres lead to the finish line, directly in Bormio, with the last spectacular jump of a breathtaking run.”
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Sarrazin’s crash aroused criticism from French skier Nils Allegre, in his seventh year on the World Cup circuit, who told The Associated Press:
“My opinion here is clear, it’s that they don’t know how to prepare a course. It’s been 40 years that they have been preparing courses, but they don’t know how to do anything, apart from dangerous things.
“Maybe it’s not something everyone agrees with but it’s my opinion and it’s deep-seated. It’s not right, I don’t know what they’re trying to prove, but a year ahead of organizing the Olympics, having a course like this – they don’t deserve to have the Olympic Games here.”
Allegre’s view was immediately challenged by race director Omar Galli (ITA), who said added safety features had been installed, with more to come:
“I would invite [Allegre] to come here just in the past 10 days, fortnight and see what happens from 5 a.m. until 8 p.m., when there’s wind, when there’s rain and see how we manage to resolve things.
“Everyone has their own opinion and it should be respected because at the end it’s the athletes who race. But probably if we asked 70 athletes we would probably end up with 70 different courses, maybe not 70 but at least 66. What’s the middle point is up to us but it could be right for one and wrong for another.”
Galli noted that both Sarrazin and Zazzi “caught an edge,” but acknowledged the course is a challenge:
“We know the Stelvio. It’s not by chance that it’s alluded to as, if not the most difficult, then certainly among the most difficult.”
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The French had more trouble on Saturday, this time at the FIS Women’s Alpine World Cup races in Austria:
“Victim of a fall during the Semmering giant slalom in Austria today, Clara Direz was taken to hospital with head trauma.
“All the medical assessments carried out on site are reassuring. She will leave this evening to join the French team at the hotel. She is expected to follow an adapted protocol for the next few days, said Dr. Stéphane Bulle, doctor for the French Alpine ski team.”
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