‘IT’S TIME TO REFLECT’
Top skiers are crashing at an alarming rate on World Cup circuit
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Mikaela Shiffrin, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, Petra Vlhova, Alexis Pinturault, Corinne Suter.
All five former overall World Cup ski champions or Olympic gold medalists have been involved in severe crashes during races over the past 15 days.
And they’re not the only ones. Marco Schwarz, a former world champion who was leading the overall standings, didn’t even make it to January. He injured his knee on the dark and bumpy Bormio downhill in late December.
In a season without a Winter Olympics or a world championships, the ski circuit is hurting.
Why? Many skiers are pointing to an overloaded schedule in January after many races were canceled at the start of the season.
The International Ski Federation (FIS) scheduled two downhills for the men at Wengen, Switzerland, and Kitzbühel, Austria, and also two in Cortina for the women. Add in multiple training sessions at each of those venues and there’s highspeed, on-the-edge skiing going on virtually all week.
“If the strongest skiers are going down, it’s got to make you wonder,” leading downhiller Sofia Goggia said.
Shiffrin, who has a record 95 World Cup wins, crashed into the safety net at high speed during Friday’s downhill in Cortina on the course to be used for the 2026 Olympics. She avoided a serious leg injury and wrote on Instagram she was thankful it wasn’t worse. It’s unclear when Shiffrin will return.
Suter pulled up midway on her run, clutching her left knee. She tore her ACL, damaged her meniscus and is out for the season. Shiffrin and Suter were airlifted down the mountain.
The weekend before, Vlhova’s season ended after tearing ligaments in her right knee in a giant slalom in front of her home fans in Slovakia. That came after Pinturault and Kilde had season-ending crashes at Wengen.
“Races, travel, training sessions, pressure, stress,” said Federica Brignone, another former overall champion who crashed on Friday — although without getting hurt. “It’s time to reflect about the overloaded schedule.”
There were more crashes on Saturday in Cortina, where American racer Bella Wright sustained bruises and a cut on her chin.
“It hurt, but I knew right away my legs were OK,” Wright said. “They’re bruised and they’re definitely going to be more and more sore as time goes on. I was also spitting up blood and I wasn’t sure what that was from. And then they told me I have a laceration on my chin.”
Racing was suspended several times for long periods due to strong winds. Czech skier and snowboarder Ester Ledecka was the first racer on the course and she pulled up shortly into her run after losing control.
Germany’s Kira Weidle and Switzerland’s Joana Haehlen also fell, and Haehlen was carried away from the finish area with her entire leg bandaged. She tore her right ACL.
The race was eventually stopped with two skiers still to start after Ania Monica Caill of Romania went cartwheeling into the safety nets.
“Talking only about the number of races is pointless,” said Lara Gut-Behrami, the Olympic super-G champion and a former overall winner. “There’s a ton of reasons that affect performance. True, the schedule is very full, but it’s been that way for years. Even when there are no races all the athletes go train.
“There’s more stress because of everything else surrounding the sport,” Gut-Behrami added. “Whereas before it was only about skiing, now an athlete has to multitask and worry about curating their image and marketing themselves. But the days still last 24 hours.”
The men will have a break, though, with FIS announcing that two upcoming downhills scheduled for Chamonix, France, have been canceled due to poor snow conditions.
Considering all of the recent crashes, some skiers are suggesting cut-proof underwear should become mandatory in more races.
Already required in parallel events, the cut-proof underwear could prevent racers from being injured by their super-sharp ski edges during crashes. But downhillers don’t wear it because it slows them down.
“This should be a safe improvement for all of us,” Goggia said. “It should be mandatory.”
Kilde had to have urgent surgery to repair a severe cut and nerve damage in his right calf, plus two torn ligaments in his right shoulder.
Cut-proof underwear, made of resistant polyethylene substances that are said to be stronger than steel or Kevlar on a perweight basis, might have prevented Kilde’s injury. Just as inflatable airbags that skiers wear under their racing suits can provide protection.
“It’s a no brainer,” U.S. women’s coach Paul Kristofic said. “But there’s always people that push against these things for various reasons. There wasn’t unanimous support for the airbag either.”
MELBOURNE, Australia — In the back of her mind Aryna Sabalenka didn’t want to be, in her words, that player who wins a major title and disappears.
Winning her first Grand Slam crown in Australia a year ago gave Sabalenka the confidence she could do it again. Losing the U.S. Open final last September gave her the extra motivation.
Sabalenka ensured she wasn’t a one-hit wonder by clinching back-to-back Australian Open titles with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Zheng Qinwen on Saturday in a one-sided women’s final that contrasted sharply with her comeback three-set victory here over Elena Rybakina last year.
“I just wanted to show that I’m able to be consistently there and I’m able to win another one,” she said. “So compared to last year, it’s a completely different me. Compared to the U.S. Open, once again, it’s a different me; I’m more controlled and kind of like don’t let the rest of the things come to my mind.”
In 2022, Sabalenka struggled so badly with her serve in tense moments that she doubted she could win a major. Now she’s relying on it to break down opponents. She didn’t serve a double-fault in the final, and she didn’t face a break point.
No. 2-seeded Sabalenka set the tone with big, deep forehands and converted service breaks early in each set against the 21-yearold Zheng, who was making her debut in a Grand Slam final.
The journey and the destination were equally important for Sabalenka.
In the semifinals, she avenged her U.S. Open final loss to No. 4-ranked Coco Gauff with a straight-set win. That followed straightsets wins over 2021 French Open winner Barbora Krejcikova in the quarterfinals and Amanda Anisimova in the fourth round.
“I’m definitely a different person and a player and I have more experience playing the last stages of the Grand Slams,” Sabalenka said, reflecting on the last 13 months. “There was some tough moments for me losing the U.S. Open final — that loss actually motivated me so much to work even harder.”
And that, she said, gave her more confidence in her game and more self-belief.
“The first one is always special because I feel like it’s more emotional,” she said. “For the second time, it’s just such a relief.”
Only two things slowed down Sabalenka’s progress Saturday to her second Grand Slam singles title.
In the third game of the second set, with Zheng serving, the match was interrupted after an activist started yelling out. The match continued after the man was escorted out by security.
Then, when she was serving for the match, Sabalenka had three championship points at 40-0 but missed two with unforced forehands errors and another with Zheng’s clever drop shot.
After giving Zheng a breakpoint chance, she bounced the ball away behind her in disgust. But she recovered her composure to win the next three points.
Sabalenka is the first woman since Victoria Azarenka in 2012 and ’13 to win backto-back Australian Open titles, and the fifth since 2000 to win the championship here without dropping a set — a group that includes Serena Williams.
She credited her support team for keeping her on track, and making sure she enjoyed the moment. Sabalenka made a habit of slapping and autographing the bald head of her fitness trainer, Jason Stacy, before each match in Australia.
After the final, Stacy, wearing a shirt with the message “Simplicity is the key to brilliance” printed on the back, held the trophy on the court as Sabalenka huddled with her team in a victory celebration.
A decade after Li Na held the Australian Open trophy aloft, Zheng made her best run in nine majors to date. She said during the tournament that she felt well-supported in Melbourne because of the big Chinese community. And that played out for the final, where the flags waved and she had the crowd behind her.
But she was playing an opponent ranked in the top 50 for the first time in this tournament.
It was the second time in as many majors their paths had met in the second week; Sabalenka beat Zheng in the U.S. Open quarterfinals last year.
Zheng’s push to the final was two rounds better than her previous best run to the quarterfinals in New York last September.
She was the first player in four decades to advance through six rounds without playing anyone ranked in the top 50 — and was only the third in the Open era to reach a major final without facing a seeded player.
The step up against No. 2-ranked Sabalenka proved too much.
“I didn’t perform my best. That’s really pity for me, because I really want to show better than that,” Zheng said. “I think I can learn more with the loss today. And then I just hope next time I can come back as a better tennis player and come back, yeah, stronger.”