Ulrike Maier remembered
ByReuters
Published 29/01/2004 at 12:12 GMT
Flirting with danger is a day's work for fearless downhill racers but many of them will stop and remember what happened to Ulrike Maier 10 years ago. Before charging down the Kandahar piste in World Cup races this weekend, skiers will pay their respects t
Eurosport
Image credit: Eurosport
A memorial mass was being held here on Thursday, the anniversary of Maier's death, and a minute's silence will be observed before the start of Friday's downhill, the first of three men's Alpine skiing speed events to be staged over as many days.
The downhill in which Maier died had been rescheduled three times from three different resorts and then postponed for 24 hours in Garmisch when it eventually took place, on January 29, 1994.
The start was delayed because a fresh layer of snow which had fallen overnight had to be removed from the course.
The piste was well prepared and the sun was shining when Maier, a double super-G world champion, set off.
She looked in control for most of the race but then lost her balance entering the final turn at full speed, spun backwards on the icy piste and fell on the back of her head near a mound of snow piled up to protect a timing post.
LEGAL BATTLE
The violent impact broke her neck. Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and heart massage were performed on the scene but Maier remained unconscious and was airlifted to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead less than three hours later.
A legal battle followed which lasted more than two years and ended with Maier's family dropping charges of negligent killing against the International Ski Federation (FIS), the world governing body, in return for a cash settlement.
Prosecutors had accused officials of failing to observe safety regulations in placing the timing post at a dangerous spot but the FIS maintained that Maier's death was a tragic accident that could not have been foreseen.
Experts also pointed out that new equipment, and notably sharper skis being introduced that winter, might have played a role in the tragedy.
The debate over safety in the risky sport, which could be compared to Formula One without a car to protect the racers, was reignited when another super-G world champion, Regine Cavagnoud of France, died in October 2001 from injuries sustained in a training collision in Austria.
Maier was not only a top competitor. She was also the World Cup circuit's only skiing mother and pictures of her rushing to hug her small daughter at the finish line made her a sympathetic figure to rivals and fans.
RETIREMENT PLANNED
The friendly Austrian, who was three months pregnant when she won her first super-G world title in 1989 in Vail, Colorado, often said that her little Melanie was her motivation for racing.
She always wanted to make it to the line as fast as possible to hold her in her arms, she explained.
Maier's daughter was playing in the finish area when her mother defended her super-G crown on home snow, at the 1991 world championships in Saalbach.
Melanie was not present on the day of the crash. She was four years old then.
Maier, who would have been a favourite for gold at the Lillehammer Olympics just a few days later, had said she planned to retire at the end of the 1994 season to devote herself to her family.
She and her fiance, Hubert Schweighofer, had set a date to marry in September that year.
The ceremony should have taken place in her home village, Rauris, at the church where the local priest instead presided at her funeral.
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