Ski racing is a great sport.  So what could possibly go wrong?  

Ski racing is the most aesthetic of sports, both in the places it is practiced and in its inherent athleticism.  Skiing, fast or slow, gives immediate gratification every run, whether in or out of gates; it releases a mist of pleasure chemicals in the brain.  It is fun, addictive, satisfying, and so on.  Gravity is the force that allows racers to convert potential energy to speed.

But if gravity is the essential upside of this gravity sport, sometimes it is also the downside.  One challenge of racing fast is the racer's inherent instability should anything go awry on course.  That's when gravity, no longer harnessed and doing the racer's bidding, confronts us, as implacably as income tax.

And apart from the sheer difficulty of skiing fast and well on a course, there are other factors, such as course conditions, poor visibility, and lurking equipment issues.  Bindings hold boots to skis, until suddenly they don't.  There is, as we all know only too well, an element of luck in this sport.  And the luck switch can be thrown in the blink of an eye.

Here are a few examples of what can sometimes go wrong:

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