FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!
When you talk about dangerous sports, a lot of ‘out-there’ statistics get bandied around – there’s always some moron in the pub claiming that more people die from angling than from boxing (something to do with walking into power lines while holding their rods up and getting electrocuted).
But ski-jumping? Now that’s a sport made for life-threatening mishaps. Like this particularly spectacular wipeout, that hit 21-year old Czech jumper Jan Mazoch last week at the World Cup event in Zakopane, Poland.
Mazoch had just executed the best jump of his career, when he bombed down the slope for round two. Apparently the winds had been particularly unpredictable that day and, mid-flight, they dropped suddenly causing him to crash to the ground. Bizarrely, he is reported to have sustained no external or internal injuries, but is suspected to be seriously brain damaged and in a critical condition.
Frankly, it’s a miracle this doesn’t happen more often. Given the specifics of the sport – flying off an icy slope, into the void, before attempting to land 50ft later on two five-inch-wide slats – how come we never saw Eddie The Eagle dropping out of the sky? He didn’t even practice on a proper slope and still made it look like a piece of piss when he was up there.
We are listening to Elbow
That crash doesn’t look like a really hard impact , obviously it fealt alot harder than it looked, nice rag doll that always adds to it, I knocked myself out on my bmx down my trails a few years ago jumping some massive doubles, but have not no effect on me.
Comment by myspace./deadbeatind — 25/01/07
i defy anyone with any sense to go down a ski jump willingly. That said, its like watching motor racing, and downhill ski-ing - you only really watch it to see the crashes.
Comment by benc — 26/01/07
You fell off a BMX? That’s shit. I once broke every single bone in my body and received superficial incisions into my cerebral cortex and lost both my eyes. Pussy.
p.s. “I knocked myself out on my bmx down my trails a few years ago jumping some massive doubles, but have not no effect on me”.
Please tell me the grammar (or lack of) is meant to be ironic there.
Comment by Bharat — 26/01/07
“before attempting to land 50ft later” doesn’t quite do this justice.
I walked to the top of the Lillehammer ski jump this winter (a feat in itself) and the ‘adult’ jump there is 120m and shockingly steep (the landing is a similar angle to a very very steep black run). In short, i’m surprised he’s not dead.
Comment by pluggyboy — 26/01/07
over 100 people a year are killed by coconuts. fact.
spot the boring cunt down the dog and duck.
Comment by tom.hills — 26/01/07