Everyone wants alpine events such as skicross to be as fast and thrilling as possible, but safety has to be paramount. The death today of Canadian skicross racer Nik Zoricic , who was coming into his own in the event, is bound to get lumped in with the loss of Sarah Burke since they were each alpine athletes. But the two are very different. Burke's death was somewhat of a freak occurrence. Zoricic's fatal crash seems bound to spark inquiries about the safety of the course, specially the bright idea to have advertising pillars placed right below the final jump of the course in Grindel on a course that is already narrow enough for three skiers to traverse simultaneously. Coming over the last jump, the 29-year-old Toronto native passed that pillar on the right and crashed into the snow fence. He died of head injuries. People are already wondering if the course was unsafe. As reflected in the crash video currently on youtube, Zoricic missed a pillar featuring advertising and then landed into fencing. While officials have yet to comment to news, the spot of Zoricic's impact appears to be, not just the fencing material, but also its support post. The fencing appears to have been constructed with a support post every few feet, the material of the post still unknown. ( lalate.com ) Today is probably not the time to finger-wag about the course design, but it bears pointing out since that could be where the story goes in the days to come. It is similar to the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili in that regard.
