Weinfelden pileup.... some thoughts

[Mr. T]

I am reading about the bad news about what happened in Weinfelden the last weekend. It was a big pileup, one of the biggest I have heard of. It is also my worst nightmare since it happened to me once and I have never been able to feel comfortable skating in a group again. Even to these days I usually skate at the back of the group all the times or just on my own. You can still fall, of course, but you are not going to be hurt or cause someone to get hurt the way it normally happens when a pileup is involved. However, I have read a lot of comments on many forums (in English and in other languages) and I have heard a lot of blaming. Blaming about the 110mm wheels, blaming about relatively inexperienced skaters, complaining about lack of protections, blaming the organization for this and that reason. My personal opinions are:

- I am not so sure that 110mm wheels are the reason: the overall times in the race are about the same as with 100mm wheels actually, in some cases, slower than those in the days of 84mm wheels. I think that today there is an intense competition with more elite skaters competing for fewer spots with good sponsors and they are taking any risk to achieve something;

- The fall happened in a fast downhill section. Now, I am not sure what speed they were going, but I read even 80km/h or 50 mph! I am not so sure, but in any case those are speeds achieved in pure downhill events and those guys wear proper gear, i.e. motorcycle gear. Is it really speedskating business going that fast knowing that we do not wear sufficient protections and that consequences from a fall could be extremely severe?

- Organizations are blamed if they do not grow the sport. Then they get blamed if there are too many skaters involved or if several are inexperienced. It seems a case of damned if you do, damned if you don't. It is already chaos in our marathons when you get to skate in the fitness or advanced groups. I remember my Saint Paul 2004 (fitness). I cannot even count the times I contacted my skates with others or was on the receiving side of a push. And by comparison we were going like snails. The only alternatives I see are: individual or team time trails. I would like that very much, but that is just me. I am sure that there are those who think that the normal format is the most spectacular.

- I keep reading that we do not have enough protections and that is true. A skinsuit is not going to save your skin, our helmets are not going to save our faces if we go down with our heads and the little plastic on the palm of our gloves will do but little to help us. Yet, there is no rule that prevents CIC/FIRS to adopt heavier protections for skaters. For example, more kevlar rather than lycra/spandex would save lots of skin to start with. Some well conceived padding may help as well. If we all wore heavier protections we would still be all on the same level in my opinion. I wrote the same thing on an Italian forum and someone there attacked me in a bad way telling me that I was an idiot and that skaters are so brave and dedicated that they accept a "murderous" (his words, not mine) organization of the events just to stay at the top of their game. This makes no sense to me at all. I played football and, sure, I would be faster without the pads, but only the Incredible Hulk or an immense idiot would try playing without! It seems to me that skating is like the football in the 20's and 30's where players were heavily undergeared. They realized it, they did something about it. And 350lbs guys do sweat.. even when they are standing still often... so I do not think that we can just say that skaters cannot use heavier protections because they would sweat too much... Sure, I do not expect the extra protection to solve all our problems, not at all. But, if many complain that we take risks with less than ideal protections, I do believe that we can do something about it to improve, maybe just a little bit, the situation. Cycling has suffered deaths going downhill. I am afraid that inline will too if what happened in Weinfelden becomes more common occurence;

- I have heard several competent people complaining about the current situation and for different reasons. But, I have not heard anybody complaining loud enough or strong enough to induce changes. This puzzled me more than a bit. Does it mean that "yes, it is too bad what is happening, but we cannot do anything about it?" Then complaining is useless.

[Jim White]

In most countries where skating is done, people are mostly free to wear what they want, and to otherwise conduct their own business as they want. In skating, people genereally wear what they want. Some events require helmets, but many people don't want to wear helmets, so don't skate those events. Time trials are held, some people skate them, most don't. Some people don't like hills, for some, hills (e.g., A2A) are the high point of their skating year.

Spectators often consider injuries as more significant than the skaters injured do. With very few exceptions, injured skaters return to the same kind of skating they did before the injury. I personally know two skaters who broke backs; one was competing for world team 6 weeks after the break (and made alternate), the other is an Olympian, after the break. I just returned from USA Outdoor Nationals. One skater had a badly hurt shoulder, but continued to compete with his hurt arm dangling. I skate with a 10-year-old girl who broke a shoulder and started skating again as soon as soft tissues had healed enough to hold it to gether (before the bone had hardened).

Big airplane crashed are big news. But many more people are killed in automobile crashes each year. Big skate pack crashes are big news. But many people are hurt in individual falls each month.

So, people who want to skate alone on flat ground should do so. Those who want to skate in packs, or on hills, or in packs on hills, should do so. What is life for?








P.S. Complaining is useless, at best. It takes time from taking action to make life better. "Competent people complaining" is an oxymoron.

[mrk]

I agree with Jim on this one.

Bicycle racing has plenty of high speeds and the occasional high speed crash. It is sad when it happens but in a sense it is a cost of the sport to some extent and the cyclists don't wear any more protection then skaters.

I pray for Aaron's quick recovery and hope he is able to return to the top level of the sport.

I am not familiar with the Weifelden course but it is possible that the course could be designed better. I believe racing on hilly courses is tons of fun and makes for interesting sporting action but care must be taken in safe course design. Courses with climbs at the beginning help "thin" out the packs before descents and descents must be well planned to ensure they are as safe as possible. Even with the best care crashes will occasionally happen and as with cycling it is sad but sports are never 100% safe.

Sure we would be safer wearing full body armor like motorcycle racing but I think it would take a lot of the joy out of the sport.

-Mark

[Mr. T]

Mark, I never proposed skaters wear body armors. But, when you reach speeds of 50mph, whoever cares about the safety of speedskaters, has to decide: either we do not ask them to handle those kind of speeds or we make sure that they are equipped to deal with consequences. Otherwise are skaters involved in pure downhill events just sissies? Knowing personally a couple, I strongly doubt that.
There is no oxymoron in competent people complaining, Jim. I am just a poor skater, and I do not qualify. I spent my good years in track & field and later in football and inline skating is little more than a hobby for me. But, Bill Begg has been among the first to complain and I think he is competent. On the Bont forum other voices have raised to complain and so happened in Italian and Spanish language forums. You may be happy skating with a broken arm, a broken leg, broken ribs or with raw flesh on your back, and I am not. But, there is not oxymoron there. Not a chance. Otherwise explain where the oxymoron lies. Maybe you see something I don't.
To me the issue is simple, actually elementary: either we stop complaining or we do something about it. Either we care or we do not care about what happens to skaters. Someone involved in WIC suggested that there are too many skaters in current races and 60 should be the limit. Bill Begg said something like that 1-2 months ago. Someone on an Italian forum called the WIC a "murderous organization" and that is a guy managing a team in Italy (not involved in WIC although). So there are competent people complaining and they are neither "oxys" nor "morons". I maybe, but they are not.

[Jim White]

To me the issue is simple, actually elementary: either we stop complaining or we do something about it.

Agree. Continuing to complain isn't a viable option.

[ultrask8]

I would rather people got outraged and complained, complained, complained, instead of stating the obvious and pretending that "it's their (WIC PRO SKATERS)choice to race", and "we all fall but keep skating if we want to".

I think course safety has to be addressed, rather than shovel it under the rug and conveniently just repeating the "party line".

Or do we all pretend its "business as usual" when 50 WIC PRO athletes go down in one race? PRO athletes don't enjoy the luxury of "skating if they want to or not skating a race if they don't"... they have contracts, obligations, teammates to support.

I like complainers! I like it when the lights are on, and misdeeds and errors get revealed!

Thats why our USA RollerSports had to enact some difficult changes , because people were pissed off for years... Olympic Committee was made aware of the problems... lawsuits were filed..... articles were written...questions were asked and re asked... (Not by everybody, not by the majority... the majority was silent, they didn't want to 'stick their collective necks out"...

Thank GOD that people complained and kept complaining!

[Jim White]

So what change/changes should be made so the thing(s) that caused Weinfelden would be eliminated? Would most pro skaters support making those changes?

[mrk]

As I said earlier I am not familiar with the Weinfelden course but if it is an unsafe course the skaters should protest and refuse to race. This should not be acceptable and hopefully the sport has learned a lesson.

A few years back there was a professional cycling race where the promoter had poor control of the race and conditions were unsafe.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2003/apr03/seaotter03/?id=stage1

The male riders protested and refused to race. It set precedent in cycling.

Hopefully all the people involved in skate racing (skaters, promoters, coaches, sponsors, and the fans) will do a better job in the future of watching out for the safety of the athletes. Some crashes are unavoidable so there will always be a level of danger but an unsafe course is irresponsible.

-Mark

[Jim White]

Is the course unsafe? Why?

[ultrask8]

Jim W said:
"Is the course unsafe? Why?"

Uh, 50 skaters fell, so thats already answered - the sirens of the ambulances confirm this.

Promoters, media, sponsors, are each concerned with different priorities. Some of these are also the athletes concerns as well.

Courses set up for best camera angles, exciting spectator viewing, or utilized because the authorities require certain streets etc to be used (in the permit process), are not "always" within safe limits for the speed of top athletes.

Ideally, the chief official or technical director of the event (meaning someone "separate" from the race organizers, detects potential problem areas prior to the event, and requires some changes, modifications, or additional protections, for critical areas.

The speed of the athletes and the intensity of the competition must be taken into consideration.

The chief official cannot be in bed with the race organizers, for many reasons other than what we discuss here. Needless to say, the race director is part of the promotion organization of the event - the RD cannot function as the chief official, imho.

[JoeeD]

I was not going to reply to this and try but after reading several of the comments, I feel that I want to.
Any ROAD course CAN be dangerous and it is up to all to make sure that it stays safe as possible. Because 50 skaters went down does not mean the course was not safe, it is possible that the SKATERS were not safe and Just maybe someone did something stupid and caused a snowball effect to happen. When you are going fast, no matter downhill or not, and you fall, if anyone is behind you, chances are they are going down too! Just the way it happens. You can not blame the course always. I have been going to US10K for years in the hills in Georgia and skaters have been clocked at around 55mph! coming down one of the many hills that are on the course. I have seen people fall, and it is just part of racing. Some skaters just can not handle the speed wobble and/or are scared of the speed. Yet, this race is one of the most fun races that we have been to and will continue to support the race as long as they have it! If you are not confident enough to race the race or scared of speed and/or the track ( i would hope that you drive the track or take a look before you race), then you are better off not doing it. From what I saw, it seems to be a relatively good course and tests the skills of the skaters. This is a WIC not a rec race and not a fun skate.. It is about winning and about being the best!
Just my opinion.

[Jim White]

Agree with Joe, any road course can be dangerous. Actually, every skate course IS dangerous, falls happen everywhere; probably more happen on perfectly smooth indoor courses. I guarantee that many more than 50 skaters will fall at USA Indoor Nationals in a couple of weeks, and that bones will be broken. None of those will be because of tar snakes, potholes, hills, train tracks, or spectators on the course. So, are Weinfelden or Lincoln unsafe? I guess so.

Everyone sit at home watching TV. That's safe. Until you stand up to go to the bathroom and trip on the rug and break your hip, or have a heart attack because it's your first activity all day.

I agree certain things should be done to make courses safe. But being an ambulance chaser doesn't automatically bestow a halo.