Italian skier's death reopens safety debate ahead of Winter Olympics

The debate over safety in World Cup skiing usually doesn't become an annual topic until December or January, and after a series of tumbles, twisted knees, torn ACLs and worse.

Not this season.

The death of Italian skier Matteo Franzoso this week following a crash in preseason training in Chile has resurfaced concerns over how to limit risks in the high-speed sport more than a month before the racing even starts.

The debate also comes less than five months before the Milan-Cortina Olympics.

Franzoso, who was 25, became the third rising Italian skier to die in less than a year.

Matilde Lorenzi, who was 19, died from her injuries after a crash last October. Then in March, 18-year-old Marco Degli Uomini died while testing the course for a regional children's race. Margot Simond, who was a promising 18-year-old French skier, died in a training crash a month later too.

In 2017, French downhill skier David Poisson, a former medalist at the world championships, died following a training crash in Canada. He was 35.

"How many tragic losses will we have to experience before we finally open the debate on safety, especially during training?" veteran French downhiller Adrien Theaux wrote on Instagram.

Added Lucrezia Lorenzi, Matilde's older sister and a competitive skier herself: "The time has come to stop. … You can't go out to ski and then not return home."

Franzoso crashed through two layers of safety fencing on a course at La Parva and slammed into another type of fence positioned 6 to 7 meters (yards) outside the course, the Italian Winter Sports Federation said. 

He was transported by helicopter to a hospital in Santiago but couldn't survive cranial trauma and a consequent swelling of his brain. He died two days later — a day