BORMIO, Italy, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Alpine skiing, now in the spotlight at the Milano Cortina Winter Games, has undergone a quantum leap in technology and course preparation over the past quarter‑century, fundamentally changing how athletes race and train.
Former Alpine skiing champions and coaches said the shift fromnarrow, straight skis to deeply side-cut carving skis in the mid-to-late 90s was the sport's biggest revolution. The move replaced skidded turns with clean, arcing ones.
"The biggest change certainly was the carving quantum 'jump' about 25 years ago, the change of the skis," said Austrian-born Marc Girardelli, who won five overall World Cups in the 1980s and 1990s racing for Luxembourg.
"Before it was more like an artistic coming‑around‑the‑corner. Now the ski makes the turn by itself, as long as the skier stays centred on it," Girardelli, one of the most successful skiers of his generation, said on the sidelines of the Alpine skiing Olympic events in Bormio.
The advent of high-performing carving skis boosted the ability to build speed in clean turns, said Danilo Sbardellotto, a former Italian World Cup racer and coach.
"We used to set up the turn, but with skis that were so straight they would sometimes slip out, you’d mess up the turn, and lose speed," he told Reuters.
"Now, instead, when you put these skis on edge, they’re so precise that you generate much more speed and a far stronger exit, gaining incredible acceleration as you come out of the turn."
SPORT HAS BECOME MORE PHYSICALLY DEMANDING
Even though the new equipment has improved the ease of turning, maintaining contact with the terrain requires more intense athletic preparation to cope with the increased physical demands on skiers.
"The equipment has increased the forces and inertia on the body. That’s why we see very strong physical builds across all disciplines," said Sebastien Amiez, a silver medallist in slalom at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
"We were athletes, but now they're even stronger physically because they have to work on skis that are more demanding."
Modern racers, Girardelli noted, often collapse in the finish area after exerting extreme force throughout a run.
"That’s the problem," he said. "It requires so much power, especially in the second part of the race. And that’s maybe why there are more accidents.
"Younger skiers don’t always know when to give themselves more room. When the ski starts controlling the athlete, they’re gone."
ICY SLOPES HAVE BECOME THE NORM
The advent of artificial snow has made it possible to make icy slopes that can remain homogeneous for longer.
"In the old days ... the course would deteriorate a lot, and those starting later would find completely different conditions from those who went first," said former Italian speed specialist Kristian Ghedina, who won two World Championship silver medals and one bronze before retiring in 2006.
"That’s exactly why they freeze the course so much. With ice it’s harder for the ski edge to bite. You might get a few little steps forming, but it’s nothing like a piste prepared with natural snow," he told Reuters ahead of the Winter Games.
His words were echoed by Girardelli.
"In the 80s and early 90s, race hills were full of little bumps, and you can still see skis dancing around on old videos,” said Girardelli. "Now you have an ice block half a metre thick from November to March. That simply didn’t exist back then."
He recalled that the military used to prepare the steep sections of the famed Streif downhill in Kitzbuehel because machines could not operate on such steep terrain.
That meant the race surface was not smooth. "It was like coming down a stairway,” he said.
(Reporting by Lisa Jucca in Bormio; Editing by Ken Ferris)
