Cyprien Sarrazin's operation “went well” the day after his impressive fall in Bormio

On Friday, Sarrazin lost control while approaching a wall at 120 km/h. MAXPPP – Pierre Teyssot

Victim of a heavy fall during training on Friday, the French downhill skier underwent surgery on Saturday, December 28 for an intracranial hematoma. An operation that went well according to the French Ski Federation.

French downhill skier Cyprien Sarrazin underwent surgery on the night of Friday to Saturday and the procedure to drain an intracranial hematoma went “well”, announced the French Ski Federation the day after his violent fall in Bormio (Italy), on a slope that is once again the focus of criticism.

A year after winning his first World Cup downhill on the Stelvio and launching the best season of his career, Sarrazin, 30, is hospitalized not far from Bormio.“Cyprien Sarrazin was operated on during the night to decompress the intracranial hematoma. The operation went well, he remains under anesthesia for the moment”, announced the FFS early Saturday morning, which added that more information would be communicated “during the day”.

The high-alpine downhiller is also injured in an ankle and a vertebra, specified the boss of the French teams, David Chastan, on Rai. While it is still too early to know the long-term impact, this news is reassuring for the skier from Dévoluy who had already been hospitalized in intensive care in 2018 for a concussion following a fall in a giant slalom in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Germany).

Six more falls on Saturday

His violent fall on Friday shocked skiers, coaches, followers and spectators. Best time in the first training session the day before and leading in each intermediate time trial of this second training session, the Frenchman, world number 2 in downhill last winter, lost control of his skis on the last difficulty of the slope, the “San Pietro wall”, which he was tackling at over 120 km/h.

He was thrown off balance and literally flew off on a landslide before falling back onto the slope abruptly and being stopped by the safety nets after a long slide. After twenty minutes of treatment, Sarrazin was airlifted to a nearby hospital and the FFS quickly reported that he was “conscious”, before explaining late Friday afternoon that he was suffering from an intracranial hematoma requiring surgery to drain it.

Two other skiers, the Italian Pietro Zazzi (fractured tibia and fibula) and the Swiss Josua Mettler (injured knee), were injured during this second training session, rekindling criticism of the preparation of the Stelvio where the men's alpine skiing events of the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics will take place. More than three kilometres long with some sloping sections, the Stelvio is one of the most difficult slopes on the circuit with its vertical drop of almost 1,000 m, its average gradient of 60% and above all its surface that skiers consider to be insufficiently homogeneous and therefore dangerous.

During the downhill won on Saturday to everyone's surprise by the Swiss Alexis Monney, 24, six participants abandoned or fell, without however injuring themselves.

“They don't know how to prepare the slopes”, “don't deserve the Olympics”

“They don't know how to prepare the slopes, they've been preparing the slopes for forty years and they don't know how to do anything other than prepare slopes dangerous”, the Frenchman Nils Allègre had regretted the day before on Eurosport, still in shock from Sarrazin's fall. “They don't deserve to have the Olympic Games here”, added the Frenchman, best Frenchman on Saturday with the 10th time.

The International Ski Federation (FIS) has defended the track “which was prepared as it is every year”, assured Markus Waldner, the head of the men's circuit. More than the preparation of the tracks, which is crucial for a high-risk discipline, the head of the FIS points the finger at the evolution of the equipment, skis and bindings in particular, which allow skiers to go ever faster and take more risks. “We have reached the limits, there is no more margin”, he estimated, regretting not being listened to by “the biggest federations”.