Crash was my destiny, says skier Beltrametti
( 2002-01-07 10:23 ) (7 )

Silvano Beltrametti could have been packing his bags soon on his way to the Winter Olympics and possible glory.

Instead, the 22-year-old Swiss will be getting used to a wheelchair after the horrific race accident which left him paralysed from the chest down.

But, despite confessing to a brief bout of depression immediately after the accident last month, Beltrametti refuses to be bitter about the sudden and violent end to his career as a ski racer.

"Somebody up there has decided that this is my new destiny and I'll follow my new path," Beltrametti said. "It could have been much worse.

"It was my destiny that this happened and I accept it."

Ski racing, by definition a dangerous sport, has witnessed tragedy before. Only weeks before Beltrametti's 120-kph accident in Val d'Isere, French super-G world champion Regine Cavagnoud died following a crash in training.

Beltrametti, giving a news conference last week in Nottwil at Switzerland's leading clinic for paraplegics, relived his crash in the December 8 World Cup downhill when his skis sliced through the safety netting at the side of the icy OK piste.

"If I skied down this course 500 times, such a mistake would only happen once again," he said.

FASTEST TIME

"I was slightly on the back of my skis and I lost control over my line," said Beltrametti, who had set the fastest time at the top of the course.

"I fought and tried to recover my balance, pushing on my right ski. Then my left ski cut an edge and it was over. I went into the nets. I lost track of what happened for a short period and then I was lying on my back and I felt right away that I was badly injured because I couldn't feel my legs any more."

Doctors told him he had broken his spine between the sixth and seventh vertebrae and would never walk again.

Beltrametti found himself in good hands at the Nottwil clinic, where senior surgeon Guido Zaech had good experience of ski race accidents.

Twenty-five years earlier, Zaech had operated on another Swiss racer, Roland Collombin, the leading downhill specialist of his day, after he crashed coming off a long jump on the OK piste.

Collombin regained the use of his legs after weeks in hospital. The site of his crash was renamed the Collombin Jump in his honour.

Lawyers for the Swiss Ski Federation are looking into the circumstances of Beltrametti's crash, officials said, but no decision had yet been made on whether to take the matter further.

Beltrametti says he has accepted that he will never ski again.

"It's difficult to turn the page in one short moment but I have to do it, I have no choice," he said. "My career as a ski racer is behind me. It was an exciting one but I have to fight for more now."

NEW LIFE

The Swiss, who had the best result of his career when he finished second in a World Cup downhill at Lake Louise last season, faces five to six months in hospital.

"I will stay here to start my rehabilitation and learn a new life," he said. "It will for sure be my toughest training camp ever but I'm not afraid. I'll go for it because there is another life after this, a life that can be nice again.

"I will move on at another pace from now on, take my time, not be stressed like before. I was always under pressure when I was training, testing skis or travelling. Now I want to live life at my own rhythm.

"Now I can rediscover the importance of small things such as a good meal, the love of some people and many other things which were insignificant details in the past but are so important to me now," he said.

"I'm happy that I can feel this now, it's a chance to know the real value of such things."

But despite his positive talk, Beltrametti, who would have been one of Switzerland's big hopes for a medal at next month's Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, is finding it hard to follow his team mates' progress in the run-up to the Games.

"I have not been able to watch any ski racing since my accident but I guess everybody can understand that," he said. "It's still too close for me but I want to wish all the best to the Swiss team."