Silvan Zurbriggen was a long-time rider in the ski circus. The 43-year-old talks to blue Sport about the many serious crashes - and what can be done about them.
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- Silvan Zurbriggen has competed in 254 World Cup races in his professional career spanning over ten years and has taken 13 podium places.
- He also won medals twice at major events: in 2010 at the Olympic Games in Vancouver he took bronze in the super combined and in 2003 at the home World Championships in St. Moritz he won silver in the slalom. In the World Cup, he won the downhill in Val Gardena in 2010 and the super combined in Kitzbühel in 2009.
- The now 43-year-old from Valais talks to blue Sport about the most burning issue in skiing at the moment: the large list of injuries.
There are currently a lot of accidents in the Ski World Cup - some of them with serious injuries. "The racers are training a lot and pushing themselves to the limit. In Wengen, for example, the winning run (Odermatt) was two seconds faster than the course record set by Kristian Ghedina in 1997, although the course was between 200 and 300 meters longer. This means that the power is logically much greater because the speed has to be higher," says former pro Zurbriggen and adds: "The body is still the weakest piece of the puzzle. Unfortunately, that shows time and time again."
What has changed compared to his active days? "The material set-up is very aggressive. The material itself hasn't changed that much compared to ten or fifteen years ago," says Zurbriggen.
In the end, the equipment also decides "whether you win or not - you push yourself to the limit - just like in Formula 1," says Zurbriggen. The FIS does make certain specifications regarding skis, ski boots, racing suit or back armor, but as an athlete you really try to get the most out of everything, the Valais native points out.
Zurbriggen has concrete proposals for solutions
What can and must be done about this? "That's an exciting question. It's funny, I talked about it with Benni Raich in Kitzbühel. What I think could be implemented relatively quickly is to simply inflate the back armor a little, to simply have more volume. Like with Marco Odermatt in Bormio, where his back armor opened up. He certainly lost time there, it's maybe three or four km/h that you lose," summarizes the 43-year-old.
A second factor could be protectors. "In the downhill, we actually ride with our underpants on, so to speak naked in our racing suits. You would have to wear protectors for the upper and lower arms, so that there is a certain amount of protection. Maybe even on the knees, as is the case in the giant slalom," says Zurbriggen. "The FIS could stipulate that you have a universal protector suit, for example integrated with the cut-resistant undersuit, which will soon be mandatory. That means we would have a bit more volume again," he explains.
Another idea for Zurbriggen is to adapt the racing suit, which currently has to allow 30 liters of air through. "For example, you could increase it to 60 or 80 liters. In other words, generate more air permeability with the racing suit, which in turn would allow you to gain a few km/h, which would be slower," he summarizes.
Associations as the main culprits
Ultimately, he believes that the responsibility lies primarily with the associations. "They decide which direction the FIS takes," says Zurbriggen. There has to be a common denominator from all sides, for example, every athlete tries to put on a different combination in order to gain an advantage somewhere.
"We had three combos at the start back then. Depending on the situation, humidity and temperature, we chose the race suit that worked best before the start," he explains. Zurbriggen calls for a solution like in Moto GP, the premier class of motorcycle racing: "Everyone would have to use a uniform back armor - adapted to their size."