Unhappy Landings

It used to be hot-dog skiing. Now they call it aerials. They ought to call it scare-ials.

You know this is not some wimp sport when you get to the hill just in time to see them hauling one of the forerunners off on a stretcher. And forerunners don’t even compete. They’re just there to test the course.

You saw Hermann Maier’s wipeout in the men’s downhill? Aerial judges wouldn’t have liked it. Good tricks but not enough height. Sloppy landing too. Otherwise, Herm could have been skiing aerials.

This is the second Olympics for aerial skiing. Before the Lillehammer Games in 1994, it was deemed too dangerous. Of course, since it got into the Games, it has become a lot safer.

Oh, Canadian David Belhumeur will not be able to compete in Wednesday’s finals because he dislocated a shoulder and cracked some ribs in practicing for Monday’s qualifying. And how about that Kazuaki Ando of Japan? He missed his landing, pitched forward into a somersault--they only earn points in the air--and beat his skis downhill. Ukrainian Sergei But (pronounced Boot) performed a textbook face plant. He got back at the hill, though. He messed up all that white snow with his red blood.

You can tell an aerial skier by his or her--yes, women do this too--skinned nose. Or scabbed up chin. Or limply hanging arm. Or back brace worn over the snowsuit.

Trace Worthington, one of the best ever to compete in aerials, can’t do it anymore. He developed vertigo, fear of heights. Probably from seeing the world so often while upside down 60 feet in the air.

Anna Fraser had a great career in aerials and won the World Cup championship for Canada in 1986.

“She got shorter,” says her sister, Mary. “Apparently from all the landings. We think she must have compressed her spinal column.”

Lina Cheryazova of Uzbekistan won the women’s gold medal in Lillehammer. Here, she was skiing in the B group. Several months after winning that gold medal, while “water-ramping” in the off-season--doing tricks off a jumping ramp or kicker into water--she hit her head. That was in ’94. She is “still regaining her form,” according to the start list information.

Good thing this stuff isn’t really dangerous.

But then, what could be dangerous about skiing real fast down a steep inrun, flying 50 or 60 feet in the air off the kicker, flipping, twisting, tucking or doing layout somersaults? Sure, you’re going about 45 mph when it’s time to land, but you have those nice flat skis beneath you. And that soft snow.

Piece of cake.