The images of Lindsey Vonn down on the snow, screaming in pain and then being airlifted off the course by helicopter after a crash at the Olympics have been a stark reminder of the dangers of the downhill.<\/p>\n
So is this: Her skis didn\u2019t come off.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n Vonn\u2019s boots remained locked into her skis even after her pinwheeling fall at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics 2026, and they pointed awkwardly in different directions as the American four-time world champion and 2010 Olympic gold medallist slid to a stop in obvious agony.<\/p>\n It is impossible to know whether Vonn would have suffered a less serious injury \u2013 her complex tibia fracture has already required multiple surgeries \u2013 had her skis released. But the devastating injury has put a spotlight on the importance of bindings, which hold boots to the skis and remain some of the oldest technology in the sport.<\/p>\n Officials told The Associated Press news agency that a binding system designed to automatically release skis when a racer like Vonn loses control is still in the drawing-board phase after years of stalled discussions.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, sometimes it does take horrific accidents to shine even more of a light on what can be done,\u201d said Sophie Goldschmidt, president and CEO of the US Ski and Snowboard Association. \u201cIt\u2019s an area we can\u2019t be competitive in; we\u2019ve all got to be in it together with our different country counterparts and FIS [the International Ski and Snowboard Federation].\u201d<\/p>\n Bindings haven\u2019t significantly changed in their basic design for half a century: Once a skier steps in toes first and then locks in by stepping down with the heel, pressure needs to be applied for the system to release the boot. Less-skilled skiers have bindings that release more easily to avoid leg injuries. The higher the skill level and the more serious the skiing, the more the bindings are cranked down to keep elite racers on their skis.<\/p>\n Few were surprised that Vonn\u2019s skis did not release. The question is whether they should have.<\/p>\n A \u201csmart binding\u201d system based on an algorithm and designed to automatically release when a skier loses control \u201cwould have surely\u201d helped prevent Vonn from breaking her leg, said Peter Gerdol, the FIS women\u2019s race director at the Olympics and on the World Cup circuit.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s exactly what the system will be designed to do,\u201d Gerdol told AP. \u201cHer skis would have definitely popped off. \u2026 We\u2019ve seen a lot of other cases in which the bindings don\u2019t open and it results in knee issues, especially when the still-attached ski acts as a lever, either on the net or on the snow or on a gate or on any other obstacle. The leg becomes blocked, and the knee gives out.\u201d<\/p>\n Nine days before her Olympic crash in Italy, Vonn tore the ACL in her left knee in a crash in Crans-Montana, Switzerland. She ended up in the safety nets with her skis still attached.<\/p>\n A smart binding system could borrow technology from the safety air bag system that became mandatory for skiers this season in the speed events.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s still going to take time to develop, but the idea is that the binding would be triggered by the same algorithm that prompts the airbag to inflate,\u201d Gerdol said. \u201cThe heel piece would slide back, and the athlete\u2019s skis would pop off.\u201d<\/p>\n Dainese and its sister company, D-Air Lab, spent years developing an algorithm for airbags to inflate under skiers\u2019 racing suits after creating a similar system for motorcycle racing.<\/p>\n In coordination with the FIS, Dainese is sharing the airbag algorithm with top binding suppliers, such as Look, Tyrolia, Salomon, Atomic and Marker to adapt the formula to release skis.<\/p>\n Releasing skis is potentially more dangerous than inflating an airbag. Elite skiers are sometimes capable of spectacular recoveries after flying into the air, and they also can often use their skis to brake before slamming into safety fences.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a very complicated project,\u201d said Marco Pastore, a Dainese representative on the circuit for the airbag system. \u201cIf you release a binding, you\u2019ve got to be absolutely sure you do it at the right moment. For the airbag, you can look at the rotations and the entire body position. But with the bindings, you\u2019ve got to examine how the feet move, what the trajectory of the skis is, plus a series of other variables.\u201d<\/p>\n While the FIS wants to coordinate the project, issues remain over who will pay for it.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are very costly projects, and to be honest, Dainese has not made much\u201d from the airbags, Pastore said. \u201cRight now, it\u2019s costing us money. Everyone wants these great things, but at the end of the day, someone has to pay for it.\u201d<\/p>\n Sasha Rearick, the head coach of the United States men\u2019s ski team from 2008 to 2018, recalls discussions about bindings when he was in charge of the World Cup coaches working group nearly a decade ago.<\/p>\n \u201cThe problem is that Dainese is the one who\u2019s putting in the money and all the investments,\u201d Rearick said. \u201cSo if they\u2019re sharing it with the binding companies, the binding companies now need to invest heavily, and it probably costs [a lot].\u201d<\/p>\n Head racing director Rainer Salzgeber, who is involved in the project via Tyrolia, added: \u201cIt\u2019s already a lot.\u201d He suggested a simpler and quicker solution for crashes like Vonn\u2019s: gate panels that give way.<\/p>\n Markus Waldner, the men\u2019s World Cup and Olympics race director, said earlier this season that FIS is \u201cworking with biomechanists and manufacturers to refine boot and binding standards to reduce the likelihood of catastrophic edge catches at high speed.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, Gerdol suggested the project could be anywhere from two to six years away from being implemented.<\/p>\n To avoid skis popping off, ski technicians crank up racers\u2019 bindings so they are virtually locked in.<\/p>\n Leo Mussi, the ski technician for American downhillers Bryce Bennett and Sam Morse, said he sets his racers\u2019 bindings at up to 200kg (440lb) of pressure \u2013 more than double what a store-bought binding is even capable of.<\/p>\n Austrian racer Marco Schwarz suffered a serious knee injury in a December 2023 crash during the Bormio Alpine Ski World Cup downhill in Italy. His skis didn\u2019t release as he slid into the safety netting.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s tough to say,\u201d he said of whether the skis popping off would\u2019ve saved him from injury, and he added that he isn\u2019t sure about changing things.<\/p>\n \u201cThe best way is to keep it simple,\u201d Schwarz said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to push too much into more technology.\u201d<\/p>\n Nina O\u2019Brien, an American who had to endure four surgeries after a gruesome compound fracture at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, said she didn\u2019t fault any equipment issues for her crash and credited her technician.<\/p>\n \u201cRegardless if I\u2019ve worn the skis that morning, clicked out and gotten a coffee,\u201d O\u2019Brien said, \u201cwhen I step back in, he checks them to make sure they\u2019re perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n The airbag system was first tested on the World Cup circuit in 2013 and only this season became mandatory for the speed events of downhill and super-G. In between, some skiers said the bags hindered their aerodynamics, were uncomfortable to wear or could actually cause injuries.<\/p>\n Safety issues became more of a pressing issue recently when Italian skier Matteo Franzoso died from a head injury caused in a crash during preseason training in Chile.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, it always takes something serious to happen for people to say, \u2018No. Now we need to do something,\u2019\u201d Pastore said.<\/p>\n This is also the first season in which a cut-resistant undergarment is required for all World Cup and Olympic events.<\/p>\n There is plenty of room for safety advancements. While the smart bindings system is being developed, Rearick \u2013 now the director of Apex 2100, an international ski academy in Tignes, France \u2013 suggested addressing the racing suits.<\/p>\n \u201cMake one suit of material for everybody that\u2019s a little bit warmer, that\u2019s a little bit slower, that\u2019s cut-proof,\u201d Rearick said. \u201cThat will make the sport a lot safer for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The images of Lindsey Vonn down on the snow, screaming in pain and then being airlifted off the course by helicopter after a crash at the Olympics have been a stark reminder of the dangers of the downhill. So is this: Her skis didn\u2019t come off. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list Vonn\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
A \u2018smarter\u2019 binding<\/h2>\n
Algorithm needs to be adapted<\/h2>\n
![\"In](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/AP26039600194520-1771410562.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80\")
Finances an issue for complicated safety projects<\/h2>\n
Will ski racers use the technology?<\/h2>\n
Advances in ski racing safety have been slow<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"