(Bormio) One year after his victory in Bormio (northern Italy), Frenchman Cyprien Sarrazin suffered a heavy fall in training on Friday on the formidable and controversial Stelvio where the downhill will take place in 13 months of the 2026 Olympic Games in Milan Cortina.
Posted at 9:27 a.m.
Best time the day before the first training session before the World Cup descent on Saturday, Sarrazin, who started with bib N.11, was in the lead at all the intermediates when he fell on the last difficulty of the Stelvio.
Unbalanced by the “San Pietro wall”, he lost control of his skis and literally flew off a bump.
The Devoluy skier then bounced violently on the snow, before ending his race in the tarpaulins and protective nets after an interminable slide.
Stuck in the protective nets, upstream of the track, he ended up being joined by the emergency services while the training was interrupted in a chilling silence and all the descenders were wondering about the state of health of “Cyp.”
After twenty minutes of treatment away from the cameras, the world No.2 in descent last winter, was evacuated by helicopter to the hospital in the neighboring town of Sondalo.
No information was yet available on his state of health.
” Aware ”
But in a brief press release, the French Ski Federation indicated that Sarrazin “was conscious”: “He will carry out examinations”, indicated a spokesperson for the FFS, without giving further details.
According to the Eurosport television channel, Sarrazin, 30, complained of pain in one foot.
The Haut-Alpine, who had given up spending Christmas with family to prepare for the Bormio meeting, hoped that his reunion with the Stelvio would launch his 2024-25 season, until then mixed with a second place in super-G at Beaver Creek (United States), but two descents, its strong discipline, disappointing (9e in Beaver Creek, 17e in Val Gardena, Italy).
Last winter, Sarrazin had by far the best season of his career, signing his second World Cup victory in Bormio, the first after seven years and his success in parallel.
Long a specialist in the giant, Sarrazin won four victories in 2023-24, including two victories in two days in Kitzbühel (Austria), considered the most prestigious speed stage on the circuit.
“It’s certain that in Bormio, I will have good memories that will come back,” he explained during a press briefing on Monday. It’s a place that will stay in my memory for a long time. There will be excitement, the desire to go there.”
“They don’t deserve the Olympics”
But Sarrazin was not yet looking ahead to the 2026 Olympics, the men’s downhill, the traditional highlight of the Winter Olympics, will take place on February 7, 2026 in Bormio.
“It will come little by little, a lot of people talk to me about it, it’s a bit in my head, but Bormio in December and Bormio in February are not at all the same Bormio,” he said. to remark.
More than three kilometers long with challenging uphill sections, the Stelvio is one of the most difficult tracks on the circuit with its altitude difference of almost 1000 m, its 60% average slope and above all its icy surface at this period of the year.
Another descender, the Italian Pietro Zazzi, was injured on Friday and was also evacuated by helicopter, while the world No.1, the Swiss Marco Odermatt, made a cautious training descent.
If Bormio is one of the “classics” of the World Cup and has hosted the World Championships twice (1985, 2005), the Lombard stage is hardly appreciated by skiers who regularly criticize the preparation of the slope.
“They don’t know how to prepare the tracks, they’ve been preparing the tracks for forty years and they don’t know how to do anything other than prepare dangerous tracks,” Frenchman Nils Allègre told Eurosport. “They don’t deserve to have the Olympic Games here,” he concluded.
