SUN VALLEY, Idaho (AP) — American downhill racer Breezy Johnson was training in Switzerland last offseason when another skier swerved into her path near the base of the lift and ran over her calf.
The person's razor-sharp ski edge sliced through Johnson's pants and through her race suit. No severe laceration, though, only a thin bruise across her leg, because Johnson happened to be wearing a cut-resistant undergarment.
Many racers at World Cup finals are donning an extra layer of protection under their race suits to guard against the dangers of sharp skis, especially runaway ones after crashes. For now, it's optional clothing. Next season, cut-resistant pants will be a mandatory requirement by the International Ski and Snowboard Federation.
The decision comes in the wake of several high-profile incidents on the World Cup scene of racers suffering cuts after crashes. Like Norwegian standout Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, who had surgery last season for a severe laceration and nerve damage in his right calf following a spill.
“Every step toward improving safety is important. We are constantly working to make ski racing as safe as possible, but it’s never easy — this sport is inherently high-risk,” said Markus Waldner, the chief race director for the men's World Cup. “This season, we unfortunately saw many injuries, and that’s difficult for everyone.
"Beyond the personal impact on the athletes, it also affects the image of the sport. We don’t want people to associate ski racing with danger — we want it to be seen as a thrilling, inspiring sport that motivates the next generation.”
Currently, there are a handful of companies who are making cut-resistant undergarments that meet the required safety specifications set forth by FIS, the sport's governing body. One of those is Vix Protection, which was started in the garage of 27-year-old founder Victor Wiacek.
He knows all too well the dangers of careening skis following his crash six years ago while racing for Babson College in Massachusetts. Wiacek has a scar that goes from the front of his left thigh to the back of his hamstring. It required more than 220 stitches to close.
“The only reason I survived, frankly, was because there was someone on the side of the hill within 30 feet of me who had medical training as well as a tourniquet on them,” Wiacek said. “They slapped (the tourniquet) on my leg within two minutes. Despite that, I still lost half the blood in my body.
"I was still in the hospital bed, full of painkillers, when something in my brain decided I need to do this. I need to work on this. It seems like something that’s easy enough to eliminate.”
Wiacek is constantly tinkering with fabrics and materials for his cut-resistant gear, with his latest development an ultra high molecular weight polyethylene-based textile. He's also created a machine that tests against ski lacerations specific to the parameters of ski racing. A business major with an engineer’s curiosity, his prototype came out in late 2019.
At first, it was just for family and friends. Since then, it’s taken off and he's helped create testing standards to measure the degree of cut protection for undergarments.
“Skis are only getting sharper, and this injury is only getting more common,” Wiacek said. “I believe it’s the only injury in our already ridiculously dangerous sport that we can not only mitigate but eliminate. That’s literally the mission in my life right now.”
To demonstrate how well his product works, Wiacek shows up at ski racing events all over the globe with a machete and a mannequin outfitted in Vix gear. He will run the sharpened blade across the product over and over.
Wiacek already has some of the top ski racers using his product. At this week's World Cup finals in Sun Valley, Wiacek estimated a large portion of the racers are wearing his cut-resistant undergarments under their race suits.
That included Lindsey Vonn and Johnson, who swears by the product after her close call over the summer.
“The ski cut through my pants, cut through my suit and tried to cut through the (cut-resistant) material,” Johnson explained. “But it didn’t. I wasn’t cut. I just had a very distinct bruise across my calf.
“In my opinion, we need to have onesies.”
That very well might have helped Mikaela Shiffrin when she was pierced — she's not sure by what — after falling in a giant slalom race in Killington, Vermont, on Nov. 30. A top layer or a onesie might have offered an added layer of protection. But she said there was no way of really knowing since this was more of a puncture wound.
“It’s cut proof, but not necessarily puncture proof?" Shiffrin said. "Maybe we need to have some kind of a padding system? Long story short, I’m not sure.”
Kilde is all for implementing safety protocols after his severe laceration in January 2024. He was cut near top of his boot.
“It was almost down to the bone. So a lot of forces in there,” explained Kilde, who also injured his shoulder in the crash and has been sidelined all season. “It (cut-resistant gear) would’ve helped my situation a lot.”
Six-time Olympic medalist Bode Miller figured that sort of cut-resistant clothing would've saved him from some slice wounds over his career. He once crashed in the super-G at the 2015 world championships in Beaver Creek, Colorado, suffering a cut that required surgery to fix a torn right hamstring tendon.
“It’s overdue that we get more innovation,” Miller said. “I’ve seen people get cut training, screwing around or skiing on their own. It's always dangerous when you're dealing with four sharp edges.”
For Austrian ski racer Cornelia Huetter, wearing cut-resistant undergarments gives her peace of mind.
“But it’s safety,” Huetter said, “that I’m hoping I don’t need.”
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AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing
Pat Graham, The Associated Press
