Today, former World Cup alpine racer and Olympic medalist Lindsey Vonn weighed in on the fact that several high-profile ski racers have been injured this winter.
The topic was initially broached on X (formerly Twitter) by race coach Holly Reed, who listed several injured prominent racers.
Reed's list included the likes of Mikaela Shiffrin, Petra Vlhová, Aleksander Kilde, and Marco Schwarz, to name a few. While Reed hit ten injured names in total, commenters contributed more racers to the pot.
Reed called the development the "dark streak of injuries" on the 2023-2024 World Cup alpine circuit.
However, in her response, Vonn indicated that frequent injuries are a normal part of alpine racing, at least with the current status quo.
"Unfortunately, this is ski racing," Vonn explained. "They have changed the skis to make athletes slower, but it didn't work."
For years, the FIS (the World Cup's governing body) has tweaked ski design regulations in an attempt to reduce the rate of injury on its race courses, focusing on alterations to side-cut, length, and waist width.
However, Vonn notes that racers circumvented these changes: "Skiers will always find a way to go fast, and inevitably, there will also always be injuries. It just happens that this year, it's all the top stars."
Vonn ended her response on a constructive note, writing, "Would love to hear ideas on what could make skiing safer…. I'd love to stop seeing all my friends end up in the hospital like me!"
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