Kitz-Sieger warns:

“It’s wheelchair or life and death”

Josef Ferstl (left) comments on Cyprien Sarrazin's heavy fall.

(Bild: Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Cyprien Sarrazin's special carbon rails continue to be a talking point. "It's a matter of a wheelchair or even life and death," warns German Josef Ferstl, who won the Kitzbühel Super-G in 2019.

A "material trick" has been causing a stir in the Ski World Cup for weeks. Cyprien Sarrazin's shin guards are supposed to help him ski an even more direct line. But since his brutal crash in Bormio at the end of December, there has been speculation as to whether they may have been the trigger.

Cyprien Sarrazin had to be transported away by helicopter.

(Bild: AP ( via APA) Austria Presse Agentur/ASSOCIATED PRESS)

"The carbon rail means that nothing gives at all - and Sarrazin was leveraged out, as if flung away by a catapult," Ferstl, who ended his career around a year ago, told "Sport Bild". With this construction, you can ride "more aggressively", says the 36-year-old. "Sarrazin drove away from everyone in Kitzbühel in 2024. He drove the steep slope on a train. That's never happened before. It went well, but if he crashes, it's not just the knee injury, but something much more serious due to the higher fall forces. Then it's a matter of a wheelchair or even life and death."

"It damages and destroys the sport"
 It is currently uncertain whether and when the Frenchman will be able to return to skiing. "What upsets me is that accidents like this end up depriving all ski fans of great duels," says Ferstl. "Otherwise we would have seen the rematch between Sarrazin and Marco Odermatt in Kitzbühel. That damages and destroys the sport. We keep losing our most important athletes because we are at the limit."