Lindsey Vonn

Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy — The images of Lindsey Vonn lying in the snow, screaming in pain and then being taken off the track by helicopter afterward his accident at the Olympic Games They were a stark reminder of the dangers of relegation.

Same goes for this: his skis didn’t come off.

Vonn’s boots remained stuck in her skis even after her fall at the Milan Cortina Games, pointing awkwardly in different directions as she paused in obvious agony.

It’s impossible to know if Vonn would have suffered a less serious injury: her complex tibia fracture has already forced her to multiple surgeries – They had taken away his skis. But the devastating injury has highlighted the importance of bindings, which attach boots to skis and remain one of the oldest technologies in the sport.

For her part, Vonn stood firm in a social media post after one of her surgeries, saying, “The trip was worth the fall. When I close my eyes at night I have no regrets and the love I have for skiing remains. I still look forward to the moment when I can be on the top of the mountain once again. And I will.”

Officials told The News that a binding system designed to automatically release skis when a racer like Vonn loses control is still in the design phase after years of stalled discussions.

“Unfortunately, sometimes it takes horrible accidents to shed even more light on what can be done,” said Sophie Goldschmidt, president and CEO of the US Ski and Snowboard Association. “It’s an area where we can’t be competitive; we all have to participate in it together with our counterparts from different countries and the FIS (the International Ski and Snowboard Federation).”

Bindings have not changed significantly in their basic design for half a century: Once a skier steps into a toe-first position and then locks in by heel-striking, pressure must be applied for the system to release the boot. Less skilled skiers have bindings that release more easily to avoid leg injuries; The higher the skill level and the more serious the ski, the more the bindings are lowered to keep elite racers on their skis.

Few were surprised that Vonn’s skis didn’t come loose. The question is whether they should have done so.

A safer system is being sought, similar to skier airbags

A system called “smart binding” based on an algorithm and designed to release automatically when a skier loses control “would certainly have helped prevent Vonn from breaking her leg,” said Peter Gerdol, director of FIS women’s racing at the Olympics and on the World Cup circuit.

“That’s exactly what the system will be designed to do,” Gerdol told the AP. “Their skis would definitely have come off… We’ve seen many other cases where the bindings don’t open and that results in knee problems, especially when the ski still attached acts as a lever, whether it’s on the net or on the snow or on a door or any other obstacle. The leg locks and the knee gives way.”

Nine days before her Olympic accident, Vonn tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee in an accident in Crans-Montana, Switzerland. He ended up in the safety nets with his skis still attached.

A smart binding system could borrow technology from the safety airbag system that became mandatory for skiers this season in speed trials.

“It will still take time to develop, but the idea is that the junction is activated by the same algorithm that causes the airbag to inflate,” Gerdol said. “The heel piece would slide back and the athlete’s skis would jump.”

Dainese and its sister company, D-Air Lab, spent years developing an algorithm for airbags to inflate under skiers’ racing suits after creating a similar system for motorcycle racing.

In coordination with the FIS, Dainese shares the airbag algorithm with major binding suppliers such as Look, Tyrolia, Salomon, Atomic and Marker to adapt the formula to the skis.

Releasing your skis is potentially more dangerous than inflating an airbag. Elite skiers are sometimes able to make spectacular recoveries after flying through the air and are often also able to use their skis to brake before crashing into safety fences.

“It’s a very complicated project,” said Marco Pastore, Dainese’s representative on the circuit for the airbag system. “If you release a binding, you have to be absolutely sure you do it at the right time. With the airbag you can look at the rotations and the entire body position. But with bindings you have to examine how the feet move, what the path of the skis is, plus a number of other variables.”

Cost is an issue

Although the FIS wants to coordinate the project, there are still doubts about who will pay for it.

“These are very expensive projects and, to be honest, Dainese has not gained much” from the airbags, Pastore said. “Right now it’s costing us money. Everyone wants these wonderful things, but in the end someone has to pay for them.”

Sasha Rearick, head coach of the U.S. men’s ski team from 2008 to 2018, remembers discussions about bindings when he was in charge of the World Cup coaches’ working group nearly a decade ago.

“The problem is that Dainese is the one who puts up the money and all the investments,” Rearick said. “So if they share it with the bookbinding companies, they will now have to invest a lot, and it will probably cost (a lot).”

Markus Waldner, race director for the men’s World Cup and Olympic Games, said earlier this season that the FIS is “working with biomechanists and manufacturers to refine boot and binding standards to reduce the likelihood of catastrophic edge entrapment at high speed.”

Still, Gerdol suggested the project could take between two and six years to implement.

Fixing Applications Differ

To prevent the skis from coming off, ski technicians raise the riders’ bindings so that they are practically locked.

Leo Mussi, the ski technician for American Alpines Bryce Bennett and Sam Morse, said he pressures his racers’ bindings up to 440 pounds, more than double what a store-bought binding is capable of.

Austrian rider Marco Schwarz suffered a serious knee injury in an accident in December 2023 during the Bormio descent. His skis didn’t come loose as he slid into the safety net.

“It’s hard to say,” he said of whether skis would have saved him from injury, and he’s not sure it would change things.

“The best way is to keep it simple,” Schwarz said. “I don’t want to push too much toward more technology.”

Nina O’Brien, an American who endured four surgeries after a gruesome compound fracture at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, said she did not attribute her accident to any problem with the equipment and gave credit to her coach.

“Regardless of whether I put my skis on that morning, went out and had coffee,” O’Brien said, “when I put them back on, he checks them to make sure they’re perfect.”

The airbag system was first tested on the World Cup circuit in 2013 and only this season became mandatory for downhill and super-G speed events. Meanwhile, some skiers said the bags hurt their aerodynamics, were uncomfortable to use or could even cause injuries.

Safety issues became more pressing recently when Italian skier Matteo Franzoso died following an accident during preseason training in Chile.

“Unfortunately, it always takes something serious to happen for people to say, ‘No. Now we have to do something,'” Pastore said.

This is also the first season where cut-resistant underwear is required for all World Cup and Olympic Games events.

There is much room for advances in security. While the smart binding system is being developed, Rearick (now director of Apex 2100, an international ski academy in Tignes, France) suggested tackling racing suits.

“Make one suit of material for everyone that’s a little warmer, a little slower and cut-proof,” Rearick said. “That will make the sport much safer for everyone.”