Airbags, Blue Lines And Good Underwear: 6 Features Of Olympic Skiing You Should Know

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Freezing acold velocity suits, sleek airbags and cut-resistent underwear. There’s much to Olympic skis racing than meets nan eye.

A look astatine immoderate of nan procedures, methods and instrumentality you mightiness not cognize astir erstwhile you tune in:

U.S. skier Breezy Johnson competes successful Alpine downhill astatine nan Milan-Cortina Olympics connected Feb. 8. Johnson won golden successful nan event.

(Christophe Pallot / Agence Zoom / Getty Images)

Those bluish dye lines were introduced successful 2001 connected nan World Cup circuit to thief racers — peculiarly successful nan velocity events of downhill and super-G — navigate courses astatine precocious speed, particularly successful mediocre visibility. The skier has nary responsibility to enactment wrong nan bluish borders, but nan markings thief them find nan champion statement down nan hill.

If you’ve ever skied successful nan day light, erstwhile it’s difficult to spot immoderate articulation successful nan slope, conscionable achromatic everyplace you look, you tin understand really having those points of reference would beryllium helpful.

“Any small spot of other cognition you’ve sewage astir a bump, aliases nan track, aliases a portion of terrain, past you tin move complete it overmuch much confidently,” said Nina O’Brien, a personnel of Team USA.

It isn’t utilized overmuch successful slalom, but it shows up successful nan velocity events and elephantine slalom. Not everyone loves nan dye, however, because nan chemic sprayed connected nan snowfall tin beryllium a small warmer if it’s caller and mightiness slow a racer by milliseconds if he aliases she skis complete it. On nan whole, though, competitors opportunity it’s much adjuvant than not.

U.S. skier AJ Hurt competes successful nan women’s squad mixed slalom connected Feb. 10.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

Those poles that delineate nan people — not conscionable successful slalom but each races — are called “gates,” and they are hinged astatine nan guidelines truthful they tin crook down wholly erstwhile deed by a racer and past threat backmost into a vertical position. They are typically screwed into nan snowfall and often cemented successful by h2o that turns to ice.

The shortest region betwixt 2 points is simply a consecutive line, and racers purpose to return nan shortest and astir nonstop way to nan decorativeness line.

In downhill, super-G and elephantine slalom, nan gates are 2 poles pinch a nylon sheet stretched betwixt them. While they effort to return nan optimal line, racers don’t intentionally deed those. We saw what happened to Lindsey Vonn erstwhile she accidentally hooked her limb connected 1 and that apparently contributed to her convulsive crash.

In slalom, racers typically sound down gates pinch their arms aliases shins, which are protected by integrative shin guards. Sometimes, those gates tin threat backmost and present a parting gift – a smack connected nan backside.

Switzerland’s Marco Odermatt competes successful elephantine slalom astatine nan Olympics connected Saturday.

(John Locher / Associated Press)

Not unless you see an crystal rink soft. A week aliases 2 earlier a race, a squad of workers uses hoses to spray down nan full people pinch nan intent of it freezing complete by morning. Another method is to usage injection-spray bars to create thousands of mini holes connected a course, utilizing nozzles that unit h2o into nan snow. Whatever nan method, it winds up a large expanse of ice, which makes it acold much challenging and faster.

In nan method events of slalom and elephantine slalom, that requires razor-sharp edges. In nan velocity events, nan racers walk much clip connected nan bases of their skis.

“Even our coaches don’t spell down wherever we ski; they skis down nan side,” downhill racer Sam Morse said. “A recreational skier would conscionable upwind up successful nan nets.”

There are 2 varieties of fencing: A-net and B-net.

A-net is much rigid, often permanent, and utilized to forestall racers from flying disconnected nan people and into vulnerable areas, disconnected cliffs, into rocks and nan like.

B-net is impermanent and person to webbing that’s aimed astatine absorbing nan kinetic power of a falling skier. Frequently, location are aggregate layers of B-net pinch abstraction successful betwixt that mixed to enactment arsenic a catcher’s mitt.

“They put nets wherever you person really large autumn zones and high-speed sections, places wherever you request that other level of protection,” Morse said.

It isn’t for illustration tumbling into a pit of foam blocks, though.

“The A-net is overmuch much for illustration hitting a trampoline,” Morse said. “The B-net is designed to travel retired of nan crushed and wrap you for illustration a blanket. ... When you spell into nan nets, your footwear buckles, your bindings, your skis, they each get tangled successful nan webbing.”

So what does it consciousness for illustration erstwhile you’re going 70-80 mph?

“Terrible,” he said. “It’s for illustration you’re successful a washing instrumentality getting deed pinch sticks.”

U.S. skier Breezy Johnson soars during her gold-medal winning dowhill tally astatine nan Milan-Cortina Games connected Feb. 8.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Absolutely. Beneath those skin-tight velocity suits, racers deterioration vests that automatically inflate almost instantly during high-speed crashes to protect nan neck, backmost and chest. An algorithm — relying connected accelerometers and GPS — analyzes movements 1,000 times per 2nd to observe immoderate perchance catastrophic falls.

In her clang past Sunday, Vonn’s airbag deployed.

Those vests were made mandatory for downhill and super-G connected nan World Cup circuit successful 2024.

“There was rather a spot of disgruntlement among older athletes, because thorax trauma isn’t a ace high-occurring injury,” said Morse, who doesn’t mind nan vests. “I’d emotion to spot thing that protects nan knees, because that’s an wounded you spot a batch of.”

Yes, cut-resistent underwear. That’s right, nan racers are required to deterioration leggings that cannot beryllium sliced done by skis pinch edges crisp arsenic Cuisinart blades. That was added arsenic a request past year.

The leggings are made of an precocious polymer — a distant relative to a integrative beverage jug — pinch fibers that are incredibly beardown and durable.

“It’s not for illustration concatenation message aliases armor,” said Victor Wiacek, laminitis of VIX Protection, among nan companies that make nan leggings. “It doesn’t conscionable extremity a blade. It spreads nan kinetic power crossed nan fabric. The yarns tin activity almost for illustration a conveyor belt, preventing power from concentrating astatine a azygous point.”

Nope. Ask immoderate of nan racers. On acold days, they will support their jackets connected arsenic agelong arsenic possible, earlier “stripping” — yes, they telephone it that — successful nan starter’s hut earlier they race.

When they transverse nan decorativeness line, they quickly bundle up again.

Just much inducement to get down nan elevation arsenic quickly arsenic possible.

Honored by nan Pro Football Hall of Fame successful nickname of his “long and distinguished reporting successful nan section of pro football,” Sam Farmer has covered nan NFL for 25 seasons. A postgraduate of Occidental College, he’s a two-time victor of California Sportswriter of nan Year and first spot for hit penning by Associated Press Sports Editors.