Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics: news, results, medals and more

Armed with nothing more than two skis, skeleton cloths, and a helmet worthy of a Daft Punk comeback tour, there are humans hurtling down mountainsides faster than a Formula 1 car.

If you blink, you won’t see them: : speed skiers are the fastest non-motorized human beings on the planet.

Speed ​​skiers plummet through the sky.

In 2016, Italian Ivan Origone sped down a track at La Forêt Blanche station in France, averaging 254.958 kmph (158.42 mph) in his last 100 meters to set a new world record.

The World Air Sports Federation states that the terminal speed of the human body in free fall, in a stable position with the head down, is between 240 and 290 kmph (149.13 and 180.2 mph).

Not surprisingly, these descriptions dictate that although skiing in general is very popular, speed skiing is very much a niche vocation.

While horseback riders try to stay as light as possible, speed ski athletes maximize strength and heaviness. Weightlifting, squats, and deadlifts form the backbone of a program designed to build dense muscle.

Strength conditioning also serves another vitally important purpose: surviving falls.

F1 drivers dress to minimize damage. The McLaren F1 drivers’ suits, for example, made from a heat and flame resistant fiber, can withstand exposure to direct fire for 15 seconds, supported by fire resistant boots and gloves.

Speed ​​skiers don’t have that protection. With clothing designed for speed and speed only, crash injuries can be horrific.

Concussions, broken arms and legs…the diagnoses are endless, but friction burns are the most common injuries.

In 2016, during a World Cup training race in France, Britain’s Jan Farrell crashed at 135 mph (216 km/h) and proceeded to skid for about 350 meters – more than three and a half football fields – leaving him with second-degree burns.

Second-degree burns, usually caused by direct exposure to fire and boiling water, can be very painful, but amazingly, Farrell was back on the track a day later.

Over time, the burns healed, but the psychological scars remained.

Farrell’s confidence, previously unflappable and having never crashed at such speed, faltered almost overnight, critical in a discipline where there is little room for doubt.

“He was pretty good at not crashing and not being scared, but then everything changed,” he said. “Most of us who have crashed took a while to recover. It took me over a season and I had to go in for psychological training and really rethink my skiing.”

The sport has only made one appearance at the Winter Olympics — as a men’s and women’s demonstration event at Albertville in 1992 — and Farrell believes that while the potential is there, speed skiing needs to “do its homework” first. that his official return is viable.