Bormio track criticized after Sarrazin's violent fall

The ski world can breathe: the state of health of French downhiller Cyprien Sarrazin is stable after his terrible fall on Friday in Bormio. “Following his operation on Friday evening, Cyprien Sarrazin is awake and conscious. He will be kept under observation for a still undetermined period,” the French Ski Federation (FFS) said in its press release on Saturday.

Operated to decompress an intracranial hematoma, the 30-year-old high-Alpine descender is also affected in an ankle and a vertebra, said the boss of the French teams, David Chastan, on Rai.

While it is still too early to know the long-term impact of this fall, this news is reassuring for someone who had already been hospitalized in intensive care in 2018 for a concussion following a giant fall in Garmisch -Partenkirchen (Germany).

But his violent fall on Friday shocked skiers, coaches, followers and spectators. And the critics are pointing towards the dangerousness of the Italian track. Best time of the first training the day before and in the lead during each intermediate time of this second training, the Frenchman, world No. 2 in downhill last winter, lost control of his skis on the last difficulty of the track, the “wall of San Pietro”, which he approached at more than 120 km/h.

He was unbalanced and literally flew away on a movement in the ground before falling suddenly back onto the track and being stopped by the protective nets after a long slide.

After twenty minutes of treatment, Sarrazin was airlifted to a nearby hospital and the FFS quickly indicated that he was “conscious”, before explaining late Friday afternoon that he was suffering from an intracranial hematoma requiring an intervention to drain it.

Two other skiers, the Italian Pietro Zazzi (tibia-fibula fracture) and the Swiss Josua Mettler (injured knee), were injured during this second training session, reigniting criticism of the preparation of the Stelvio where the events will take place. men's alpine skiing at the 2026 Olympic Games in Milan Cortina.

More than three kilometers long with sloping portions, the Stelvio is one of the most difficult slopes on the circuit with its altitude difference of almost 1000 m, its 60% average slope and above all its surface which skiers consider insufficiently homogeneous and therefore dangerous.

During the descent won on Saturday to everyone's surprise by Alexis Monney, 24, from Fribourg, six participants abandoned or fell, without however being injured.

“They don't know how to prepare the slopes, they've been preparing the slopes for forty years and they don't know how to do anything other than prepare dangerous slopes,” the Frenchman Nils Allègre had regretted the day before on Eurosport, still in shock. of the fall of Sarrazin. “They don't deserve to have the Olympic Games here,” added the Frenchman, best Blue on Saturday with the 10th time.

“This Stelvio is more dangerous than usual,” said the world No. 1, the Nidwalden Marco Odermatt.

Contacted by AFP, the organizing committee for the 2026 Olympic Games “reiterated its unwavering commitment and attention, in synergy with the FIS and the IOC, to place athletes in the best safety conditions”. The International Ski Federation (FIS) defended the track “which was prepared as it is every year,” assured Markus Waldner, the boss of the men’s circuit.

“The problem,” he admitted, however, “is that on Christmas Day there was a lot of wind and we know what the wind does: it dried the snow from the bottom to the top, which explains that the snow was not uniform on the track which is three kilometers long and that it is impossible to make uniform.”

More than the preparation of the slopes, crucial for a high-risk discipline, the head of the FIS points to the evolution of equipment, skis and bindings in particular, which allow skiers to go ever faster and take more risks. “We have reached the limits, there is no more margin,” he said, regretting not being listened to by “the biggest federations”.