“Crazy Curves”: ParaSnowboard World Cup of Banked Slalom, Kühtai – Austria

Hello folks, 

Today I’ll tell you about the Banked Slalom race we had in Kühtai, an amazing ski resort in the idyllic Tyrol region of Austria. The race is nicknamed “Crazy Curves” and it is accurate, it was crazy. 

Actually crazy dangerous!! I was super excited / anxious / happy / nervous about this one. I had new boards to test and get used to & a new prosthetic socket. When it’s been a while since I boarded, it always takes a few days to get comfortable. In this instance, I actually never got comfortable to go fast on the race course. Why? —because the course was quite sketchy… and an important thing is to stay in one piece for the Paralympics in March. 

A lot of the athletes can’t say the same, a few possibly sustained season – ending injuries. That means no Paralympics if they were already qualified. The course was “only” 13 curves, but some of them were nasty… fast, tight, huge elevation drop throughout the turns. I have never seen so many injuries in a race, so many stops to practices and races – because they have to reset the safety nets and wait for an ambulance to come back to the venue. Paramedics rescues were common place. Helicopter rescues? -we saw at least 3. Cracked helmet concussion? -the Chinese medalist from 2022 Beijing Winter Games will tell you about. Some decorated athletes with Paralympic medals and/or contenders out of the race because of injury!! 

So I did all my runs on safe mode and was uneasy throughout my whole time in Austria bc of fellow athletes / friends going down. It was quite a relief when I finished injury free and I don’t care about the places I got -8th & 10th respectively on each race if you’re curious. 

Honestly I can’t believe how they kept going and didn’t cancel this race. And I don’t think they’ll ever  have a Banked Slalom race there again, that mountain terrain steepness isn’t suited for this type of race if you ask me.