2024 Ski Crashes You Haven't Seen Yet

We're only a month into 2024 and there's already been an alarming number of skiers that have had season-ending injuries from massive wipeouts live on TV. From torn ACLs, fractured shins, and having to be airlifted off the mountain, even past Olympic gold medal winners are crashing at extremely high rates. Speaking of gold medal winners, one of the all-time best female skiers from the United States just had a massive crash at a World Cup downhill race in Cortina, Italy. World Cup winner Mikayla Shifrin, a four-time World Cup downhill winner, and she won earlier this year in St. Moritz. Mikayla Shifrin started off the run great until 17 seconds in, Mikayla got more airtime than she was anticipating and didn't have time to make the sharp 90-degree turn left. This led Mikayla to spin out of control and crash into a safety net. Mikayla was taken by an ambulance to a clinic in Cortina where she was evaluated for a left leg injury. Her ACL and PCL did not suffer any major injuries, so hopefully Mikayla has a speedy recovery. The next skier, however, didn't end up as fortunate as Mikayla. While this skier had no shot at making the 90-degree turn because of her insane speed, the next skier will show you how dangerous this turn is no matter the speed. Corinne Sutter was competing in the same downhill race in Cortina, Italy, where at the same exact jump, Corinne ran into some trouble. You can hear Corinne in immense pain even though she never actually fell down. It turns out Corinne ended up tearing her ACL and damaged her meniscus on this jump. Corinne had to be airlifted off the mountain and is unfortunately now out for the season. The next skier was traveling at much faster speeds than the previous two crashes, which ended in a much more dangerous wipeout. The skier here was Alexander Kilda, who was traveling at 74.6 miles per hour before sliding out of control and nailing the safety net at the very bottom of the run. Alexander is a two-time gold medalist winner and is one of the most accomplished skiers in the world. Alexander says he doesn't remember much from the crash, but what he does remember is hitting the nets at 90 degrees and then probably blacking out for a little while. He then woke up with a lot of pain in his right shoulder and then fainted again, woke back up, and then looked at his leg where there was a large cut. This wasn't the only event that skiers have gotten injured at in 2024 however. In a slalom race in Jasna, Slovakia, skier Petra Vilhova had another brutal injury. The Olympic slalom champion initially caught herself from falling but then leaned back too much and ended up tumbling into the safety fencing. Petra ended up suffering from some torn ligaments and will likely miss the rest of the season. Petra is also Michaela Schifrin's top competitor in the giant slalom, so with both of these skiers out for the season, this opens the door to newer talent. One skier that might have had the biggest wipeout in Super G for the 2024 season is Alexis Pinterol, who got way too much air in Wengen, Switzerland. Alexis wasn't able to recover from this massive air coming off the silverhorn jump when approaching the final section of the race. Alexis Pinterol is a three-time Olympic medalist who has 34 career World Cup race wins. Alexis was airlifted from the mountain and met with a specialist who said he had ruptured crucial ligaments and the internal meniscus of his left knee. The next skier on this list was going at insane speeds of roughly 110kmh or roughly 68mph at the time of their crash, known as Prisca Neuffer. Prisca had a similar problem as Michaela Schifrin's crash, where she came over a hill so fast that by the time she landed, she didn't have any time to make the hard 90 degree left turn. Not to mention, she was traveling at 70mph, so turning on a dime like that would have been extremely difficult. This turn wasn't just difficult, many are saying it was unfair given the number of crashes that took place here. Skier Frederica Brigone unfortunately had a similar story. Frederica Brigone was in much more control during their crash, so she thankfully didn't end up in the hospital like many of her competitors did, but this was still a scary crash nonetheless. The biggest yard sale of them all though, may have come on this same turn once again from skier Michelle Gysen, who is an Olympic gold medalist. While these crashes may be intense, some of these don't even compare to the crashes that take place on many of North America's most dangerous ski runs. If you want to see just how dangerous skiing can be, make sure to check out this video right here.