After tragedy, Alpine skiing rethinks safety on the slopes

Jan 26 : The deaths of Italian Alpine skiers Matteo Franzoso and Matilde Lorenzi in the space of less than a year forced the sport to take a long, hard look at its safety procedures in the run-up to the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Both skiers died as the result of injuries sustained in training crashes and the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) say nothing is off the table in their push to make skiing safer both during and outside World Cup racedays.

"We had a couple of tragic accidents. The one of Franzoso ... brought up new questions," Urs Lehmann, appointed last year as FIS CEO, told Reuters in an interview in December.

"That was the moment when we questioned the whole system."

The safety debate is sharpened by the upcoming Milano Cortina Games, where the men's races will take place on Bormio's hair-raising Stelvio course where downhillers can hit 150 kph.

Regarded as one of the toughest tracks on the circuit, it was the site of a December 2023 crash that sidelined Austrian world champion Marco Schwarz for a year.

Under Swiss Lehmann, a downhill world champion in 1993, the FIS has launched a comprehensive plan to overhaul safety which started with a survey of its around 140 member federations to map gaps in their structures.

"We want to see: do you have a dedicated person in charge for safety? Do you have a module in your coach education programme dedicated to safety?... Then share best practice and set standards," Lehmann said.

FIS WANTS TO EXTEND USE OF AIRBAGS

One immediate change Lehmann aims to push through is extending World Cup rules on airbag use to a broader range of training sessions.

The FIS made the airbags mandatory for speed World Cup events and in official training sessions starting from the 2024-25