Alpine skiing
Next ski drama: Kilde falls badly – Odermatt wins
Aleksander Aamodt Kilde is being treated after his fall on the Lauberhorn descent. photo
© Alessandro Trovati/AP/dpa
There is another violent fall in Wengen. Norway’s ski star Kilde may be seriously injured. Odermatt races to his next home success, the Germans miss the top 20 again.
Also the third alpine ski race in Wengen was overshadowed by a violent fall.
The Norwegian top athlete Aleksander Aamodt Kilde crashed into the safety fence at high speed shortly before the finish on the famous Lauberhorn descent. He was bleeding profusely, was treated for minutes and was taken away by helicopter. According to the first impression, the 31-year-old, who had previously been in poor health, suffered an injury to his leg.
Swiss local hero Marco Odermatt once again secured victory. He had already won the shortened descent on Thursday. With his seventh win of the season, the two-time overall World Cup winner further extended his lead in the rankings. The strong Frenchman Cyprien Sarrazin came second ahead of the South Tyrolean Dominik Paris.
Germans not in the top 20
The Germans once again failed to make it into the top 20. Andreas Sander was dropped because of a fall by the Canadian Cameron Alexander, who had started ahead of him, and then finished 28th in the second attempt. Luis Vogt (30th), Romed Baumann (31st) , Josef Ferstl (33rd), Dominik Schwaiger (34th) and Simon Jocher (38th) lined up behind them. Thomas Dreßen lost a lot of time in the upper section of the longest World Cup downhill course, then no longer skied fully and ultimately ended up in 42nd place.
That was “terrible” to watch, said the Frenchman Sarrazin when asked about Kilde’s bad fall on ZDF. Kilde has already had to endure many setbacks in his career – including a torn cruciate ligament in his right knee three years ago.
There had already been violent crashes in the previous races in Wengen. The Swiss Marco Kohler in the downhill on Thursday and the Frenchman Alexis Pinturault in the Super-G on Friday suffered serious knee injuries and will be out for the rest of the season.