If you haven't been paying attention, American's Favorite Drunk Skier Bode Miller has left the US National team and is competing on his own in the World Cup this year, which is practically unheard of. The amazing part is that he's having one of his best seasons in recent years training and competing on his own, current standing third in the Overall Standings, with two victories on the season.
This weekend brought a tie for second at the downhill race in Kitzbuehel, Austria (which is pretty much the Daytona of skiing). Unfortunately, the story of the race wasn't Miller, or winner Didier Cuche, but a horrific crash by American Scott McCartney on the final jump of the race. In case you are curious, McCartney is reportedly in good condition with no serious injuries other than a concussion.
Still...ugh. I think I'll stay on the bunny slopes. (Note: video commentary in German. Or possibly Hungarian. Or some other European, guttural language.)
And I know some people are going to wonder: since he crossed the finish line, we has scored as having finished 33rd out of 55 finishers. Which a) has to sting if you finished behind an unconscious guy and b) may or may not be even more impressive than Clint Bowyer finishing the Daytona 500 upside down and on fire last year:
7 comments:
As skiing crashes go, that one actually wasn't so bad. The really bad ones involve hitting some sort of non-moving vertical object (lift poles, trees, lodge, etc.)
Homeboy was doing a bit over 90 mph with a layer of heavy spandex and a bike helmet as his only protection. The may have even saved him from worse injury, although at that level he'd know better than to fight the slide too hard once he went down, and the suits are designed to help prevent limbs from getting pulled out too hard.
The crash wasn't nearly as horrific as the fact that he lay there twitching afterward. I will stick to sledding down mild inclines.
He burned the shit out of his face, right?
Beefmaster...YES!
yeah, the twitching wasn't encouraging.
Oh yes... I have you bookmarked. I am also available for guest posts if you need someone to rant about the Twins or Vikings or something.
Just so you all know this was one of the worst crashs ive ever seen his poc helmet split in two and poc helmets are the best impact helmets out. two he fractured his skull, that alone is extreamly bad not to meantion the course he crashed on was ice injected and basically bullit proof...
I stand corrected, then. I couldn't make out the split helmet in the video. It looked like most of the energy of the fall was taken out in friction while he slid to a stop.
Not to detract from the severity of a concussion (I'm inclined to think that there's no such thing as a "minor" brain injury except on a scale of possible brain injuries), but with the number of possible outcomes from decelerating a human body from 90 mph to 0 without deliberate control which are fatal or permanently debilitating, it could have gone much worse.
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