As of: January 29, 2024, 4:45 a.m
By: Hannes Niemeyer
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The race weekend in Cortina d'Ampezzo ends as it began: with chaos and serious crashes.
Valerie Grenier had a hard time on Sunday.
Cortina d'Ampezzo – The frightening series continues.
Once again a World Cup weekend in winter sports is overshadowed by serious falls.
Just recently, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde had a real horror fall and showed his serious injuries.
On Friday, Kilde's girlfriend, ski superstar Mikaela Shiffrin, was hit.
The American fell badly on the descent in Cortina d'Ampezzo and was transported away by helicopter.
In general, the World Cup weekend in the Italian ski resort can be described as a real chaos weekend.
In addition to Shiffrin, Swiss Olympic champion Corinne Suter also suffered a torn cruciate ligament during the descent on Friday.
Suter's teammate Joana Hählen also sustained the same injury on the second downhill run on Saturday.
And the Super-G on Sunday also seamlessly followed the series of serious falls.
Questionable Cortina weekend overshadowed by crashes – Grenier gets hit hard
The wind also played a prominent role in the races in Cortina.
From the start on Saturday at 10.45 a.m. it swept so hard over the icy and treacherous slope that there were a few short interruptions.
After 17 starters, the race jury ordered a longer break for safety reasons.
Serious accident in Cortina: Valerie Grenier fell badly.
© Screenshot ZDF
The fall drama continued on Sunday.
This time Valerie Grenier got it.
The Canadian came third in the downhill on Friday.
She was also promising in the Super-G, and after several split times she was only a few hundredths behind the time of eventual winner Lara Gut-Behrami - a small sensation was in the air.
Then the big moment of shock: Grenier hit a bump, got his skis into a gate and then literally lifted off the ground, rolled over in the air and slid far across the slope along the safety fence.
Shortly before, the speed measurement had shown just under 100 km/h.
“The track is so merciless”: Canadian Grenier takes off and falls – long break
The race was interrupted for minutes and assistants rushed to the Canadian.
Competitors, fans, coaches: everyone held their breath.
The race was interrupted for minutes.
Grenier was taken away by helicopter.
“The Tofana route is so merciless this weekend,” summarized ZDF commentator Julius Hilfenhaus.
The Italian Roberta Melesi had previously experienced a serious fall.
And just shortly after Grenier, Stepahnie Jenal was also hit.
The Swiss woman slipped into the safety fence, but was fortunately able to get up and drive to the finish under her own power.
For the German ski racer Kira Weidle, the end of the weekend was disappointing from a sporting perspective.
After 16th place and a failure in the two borderline downhill runs, the 26-year-old reached tenth place in the Super-G after a weak run in a thinned-out starting field.
In contrast to many other runners, she was at least able to leave the treacherous “Olimpia delle Tofane”, on which she won World Championship silver in 2021, uninjured.