Two skiers were seriously injured after collapsing at a sports competition for students in Kuban

President of the Russian Ski Racing Federation Elena Vyalbe told the TV channel “Match TV”that two skiers were seriously injured as a result of a collapse in the 10 km race as part of the winter sports competition for students. The competition takes place in the village of Estosadok in the Krasnodar region.

“There are two injuries: one girl received a traumatic brain injury, the other broke her arm. Fortunately, there is nothing else. Now the girls are in the hospital,” said Mrs. Vyalbe.

The press service of the Russian Ministry of Sports reported “Interfax”that the department will analyze the circumstances of the mass collapse of skiers. The Ministry of Sports said that during the race the fog suddenly fell, causing visibility to deteriorate and the athletes to be injured.

From the information on website The Russian Ski Federation reports that 14 skiers did not reach the finish line. Telegram channel “Radio skis” allegedly published a video of the collapse. In addition, the channel published footage from the start of the race, which shows that fog had descended on the competition site even before it started.

Telegram channel “Caution, news” claims that at least 15 skiers collided during the collapse, and a total of nine athletes were injured. One of the injured race participants, Daria Ermakova, told the channel that before the start of the race she talked about bad weather.

Another unnamed competitor told News Beware: “There has been heavy fog since this morning. The guys understood that there would be serious falls. The girls started and on the first descent they all fell. Not from inexperience, but purely because you can’t see where you’re going. Personally, my friend helped an athlete with an open fracture of her arm. And there are a lot of such injuries, some with a broken head, a broken neck and bruises.”

Erdni Kagaltynov