French ski star Alexis Pinturault crashed in a World Cup super-G race Friday and was airlifted from the course, just six days after he became a father for the first time.
Pinturault, the overall World Cup champion in 2021 and a three-time Olympic medalist, crashed on landing the Silberhorn jump approaching the final section of the storied Lauberhorn course at Wengen.
He sat back on his skis before hitting the snow. His skis detached as he tumbled down the mountain, sliding about 50 meters (over 160 feet) before coming to a stop.
Race workers put a warming cover on Pinturault as they waited for a helicopter to land by the course and take him to a hospital. The race was delayed for about 25 minutes.
The 32-year-old Pinturault and his wife Romane welcomed their daughter, Olympe, last Saturday in the Swiss capital Bern.
There’s concern for French skier Alexis Pinturault after a violent crash in Switzerland
Pinturault was coming off a jump during a Super-G race on the Lauberhorn course in Wengen
Pinturault’s skis detached, leading to him tumbling and sliding for 50 meters (over 160 feet)
Medics attended to the French star leading to the Super-G race being halted for 25 minutes
Medics prepare French skier Alexis Pinturault to be helivac-ed to a local hospital
He was taken to a local hospital by helivac and his condition is currently unknown
A medical helicopter transports Alexis Pinturault to a local hospital in Switzerland
Just days ago, Pinturault celebrated the birth of his first child on social media
The Super-G is a fast downhill event where racers only get a single run to set a time
That day he had been due to race in giant slalom at nearby Adelboden. Romane Pinturault travels with her husband as part of his entourage handling media relations.
Pinturault returned to racing Thursday with a career-best downhill result of ninth at Wengen.
He has rarely raced the marquee speed discipline in his long career but now focuses on it and no longer races slalom.
Pinturault’s 34 career World Cup race wins include one in super-G. He also took bronze in super-G last year at the world championships held in his home town Courchevel.
Super-G is an event that is similar to the Downhill discipline of skiing – with a key difference that racers only make one run in order to clock the fastest time.
That’s led the event to be one of the most dangerous – with racers routinely reaching speeds of over 100kph (60mph).
According to a review of the severity of injuries by the National Institutes of Health in the United States, Super-G skiers suffer an injury rate of 11.1 injuries per 1,000 runs.
Only downhill skiing – where racers clock much faster speeds – has a higher rate of injury (18.1 injuries per 1,000 runs). The two other Alpine skiing disciplines – giant slalom and slalom – both run significantly lower risk (9.5 injuries per 1,000 runs and 4.0 injuries per 1,000 runs, respectively).