When you start, the ground largely disappears under your skis. The descent in Bormio, Italy, begins with a gradient of 60 percent. The speed is sometimes up to 150 kilometers per hour. At this speed, drivers have to try to negotiate the bumps, curves and jumps on the over three kilometer long track.
– Other downhill races have sections where you can shake your legs a little to relieve the numbness. But there is no such thing in Bormio, says Anja Pärson, who works as an expert for SVT’s broadcasts during the Olympic Games.
Patrik Järbyn – newest Swede Men’s skier who won a World Cup medal in downhill – competed in downhill competitions many times throughout his long career. Before a World Cup competition in 2010, he said that form didn’t matter when you came to Bormio because the only rule there was that “you risk your life and more.”
– I stand by that. For me it was the hardest hill. Even in the other difficult downhill races like Wengen and Kitzbühel you felt comfortable after a while. However, I never got along with Bormio, he says now.
– It is one of the downhill races with the highest average speed. You can’t put the guard anywhere.
The men’s steeplechase is the first the competition in which medals are awarded at the Olympic Games the day after the inauguration. There is also the risk of dark headlines. The ski jump has been hit by many accidents over the years and is known for its difficult conditions.
In December 2024, many held their breath when French star Cyprien Sarrazin lost control during a jump in downhill training, fell on his back and lay motionless in the safety net. From there, the Frenchman had to be rescued by helicopter and operated on because of a bleeding between the brain and skull, a so-called subdural hematoma.
It was just one of several serious accidents this World Cup weekend and in several previous years that prompted several skiers to protest against the Olympics being held on the slopes.
That’s pretty much the entire slope When you lie in the shade, it is difficult to see the contours in the snow. The design of the piste also means that skiers ski “blind” in many sections without seeing what is in front of them.
– The fact that you can’t see anything makes it particularly difficult. You’re driving blind and then perhaps taking a little more risk than you’re capable of. It also makes you tense up a bit and more tired, says Patrik Järbyn.
The World Cup competitions in Bormio usually take place around Christmas. Then there was rarely enough snow than in the Italian Alps, which meant that there was a lot of artificial snow on the slopes and the surface was unreliable. The fact that the Olympics will be decided in February means there will hopefully be more natural snow to work with.
– Obviously they get a better base in the substrate. “You have more options to add water to the snow so that it becomes rock hard and lasts the entire championship,” says Anja Pärson.
Norway’s largest alpine starling Aleksander Aamodt Kilde was one of the riders hoping to compete on the hill. But the Norwegian has made the decision to ignore the Olympic Games. He recently returned from a nearly two-year injury layoff after a life-threatening fall during another downhill race in 2024.
Aamodt Kilde calls the Olympic downhill “a real downhill race”.
– It has all the ingredients: jumps, high speed, flat sections and long, sharp and difficult turns, he says.
Just the twists what makes the jump so challenging, says Anja Pärson:
– In Bormio you have to drive relaxed but still very aggressively. They are long curves with strong compressions that exert enormous G-forces on the legs.
– The last 20 seconds of the track are just numb legs and you fighting the demons in your head. The slightest blow makes you unsustainable, like it happened to me at the Vancouver Olympics. And that is the horror of the whole lot.
Read more:
The appeal of the star: Downhill races have to be slower
Milan-Cortina Olympic Games – daily schedule
