Bormio (Sondrio) – Another serious accident and new controversies are raging on the Stelvio slope in Bormio where the Ski World Cup is underway: too dangerous, say some athletes, pointing the finger at the organizers. After the serious injuries by Sarrazin and Zazzion Sunday morning the person who got hurt was Swiss Gino Caviezel first to start in the SuperG race che was immediately stopped after the Swiss’s bad fall on the wall of St. Peter’s. Here, Caveziel hit a pole violently, opening the air bag and then slid for tens of meters along the slope. The unfortunate skier was rescued on the slope and after a few minutes a helicopter intervened and recovered him to transport him to the hospital with a major trauma to the left leg The race then resumed, after a track check by the organizers.
The Swiss is the first to start the test on the Stelvio
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Last Friday, always on the Stelvio, there had been the disastrous fall of the French Cyprien Sarrazin in the second timed test in view of the downhill held yesterday. The skier underwent surgery on his head to reduce the intracranial hematoma he had suffered in the fall. The local skier, the Italian, ended up under the knife in Milan Pietro Zazzi who suffered a fracture of the tibia and fibula also last Friday: season over for him. In the upper part, that is, at the attack of the Pian dell’Orso curves. after having misjudged the entry trajectory, the 30-year-old injured himself, straddling the goal with his whole body in the right curve.
The attacks
To come down really hard on the organizers it was the French team, especially Nils Allegre. “They don’t know how to prepare a slope here,” said the French skier, also looking ahead to the 2026 games, “and they don’t deserve the Olympics.” Criticism also from Odermatt, holder and current leader of the World Cup, who particularly highlighted the difficulty of managing the different types of snow found under the skis in the various sections of the slope. An aspect also highlighted by Dominic Paris, Italian veteran, six-time winner on the Stelvio.
The quality characteristics
The track features different types of snow coveralternating icy stretches with soft snow. A characteristic this year accentuated by the scarce precipitation that has made the preparation of the Stelvio complex, a slope that is already demanding in itself. If the snow is scarce, the roughness of the terrain becomes more acute.
The defence
In defense of the track which will host the men’s Olympic events in just over a year of alpine skiing, the race director of the FIS (International Ski Federation), the South Tyrolean, has lined up Markus Waldner: “We know that Bormio is one of the most difficult routes but the organizing committee has done a great job because on the Stelvio there are 20 kilometers of nets and protection barriers. Here the safety standard is very high”.
Materials “at the limit”
Waldner also points the finger at the materials. “Everything is now at the limit, in fact, we have already exceeded it, the materials were pushed beyond the limit and these falls are the result. There are criticisms every weekend now. In Gurgl the track was too hard, in Levi it was too smooth. The organizers do their utmost to prepare the slopes. In Bormio, at Christmas, the wind dried the snow and for this reason the snow cover of a 3 kilometer long track is not uniform”. And this year, with the positioning of new networks, Attention to safety was certainly not lacking, the organizers claim
