Ulrike Maier - what happened?

[Gerhard K. Raile]

In Article <1994Jan30.2...@uctvax.uct.ac.za>,
lznr...@uctvax.uct.ac.za wrote:
>hello all,
>I've just heard on the news that Ulrike Maier died during a WC downhill
>skiing race. Does anybody have any more details as to what happened.
>Could you please post or mail,
>thanks
>Roland
>
I was watching it live. She caught the inside edge of her right ski. This
threw her head first to her right into some soft snow that may have been
filling a ditch. She appears to have just missed the radar gun but she
could have hit something to do with it too. In any case her head went into
the snow and caught hard enough to rip off her helmet and violently spin her
around. It looked like they were giving her CPR then they stopped showing
what was happening other than putting her on the helicopter.
There were several other skiers that caught the inside edge of their ski but
none of them fell.
Gerhard K. Raile
ra...@iiasa.ac.at

[lznr...@uctvax.uct.ac.za]

[Jim Revkin]

Gerhard K. Raile (ra...@iiasa.ac.at) wrote:
: In Article <1994Jan30.2...@uctvax.uct.ac.za>,

: lznr...@uctvax.uct.ac.za wrote:
: >hello all,
: >I've just heard on the news that Ulrike Maier died during a WC downhill
: >skiing race. Does anybody have any more details as to what happened.
: >Could you please post or mail,
: >thanks
: >Roland

i think the ny times reported that she both broke her neck and lacerated
a major artery.
a racer complained about some substance that had been used to prepare
the course, which makes the snow more "grabby".
there were also complaints about the safety of where the radar gun
was placed.

j revkin

[Chris Melle]

We looked at the accident repeated times using home video stuff and this
is what we saw:

Ulli seemed to catch her R ski twice, the second time causing some
weight transfer over to the L ski. She started the left turn and
moving her weight rearward. Her rotation and falling seemed to put her
backwards into a "timing device". There seemed to be an object in front
of it, perhaps a pad; but her head whiplashed back and *perhaps* hit
a structure. This is what we think caused the helmut to come off,
something pushing it up from the back. From there, just some lifeless
spinning.

I had bad dreams after this, pretty upsetting.

-chris
--
Chris Melle U S WEST Adv. Tech. FAX: 303 541 6773
4001 Discovery Drive, Suite 320 Phone: 303 541 6836
Boulder, CO 80303 Internet: me...@uswest.com
UUCP: ...{boulder,bellcore,att,sunpeaks}!uswat!melle

[Maurizio Ferrari]

In article <raile.11...@147.125.99.60>, ra...@iiasa.ac.at (Gerhard K. Raile) writes:
|> In Article <1994Jan30.2...@uctvax.uct.ac.za>,
|> lznr...@uctvax.uct.ac.za wrote:
|> >hello all,
|> >I've just heard on the news that Ulrike Maier died during a WC downhill
|> >skiing race. Does anybody have any more details as to what happened.
|> >

|> I was watching it live. She caught the inside edge of her right ski. This
|> threw her head first to her right into some soft snow that may have been
|> filling a ditch. She appears to have just missed the radar gun but she
|> could have hit something to do with it too. In any case her head went into
|> the snow and caught hard enough to rip off her helmet and violently spin her
|> around. It looked like they were giving her CPR then they stopped showing
|> what was happening other than putting her on the helicopter.
|> There were several other skiers that caught the inside edge of their ski but
|> none of them fell.

She probably happened to hit with her head/neck the square wood pole that the
timing photocell is attached to. That was what probably ripped the helmet off
and caused her demise.

--
Maurizio
Name and Address witheld by request.