MADONNA DI CAMPIGLIO, Italy — Austria’s Marcel Hirscher narrowly avoided serious injury when a drone fell to the ground during Tuesday’s alpine skiing World Cup slalom won by Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen at the Italian resort of Madonna di Campiglio.
The drone, being used to film television pictures of the course from above, crashed to the ground just centimeters away from the 26-year-old Austrian during his second run.
“Heavy air traffic in Italy #crazy #drone #crash #luckyme,” wrote four-time defending overall World Cup champion Hirscher on his Instagram account after the incident, which overshadowed Kristoffersen’s victory.
The 21-year-old Norwegian clocked 1min 37.8sec in the floodlit event to beat second-place Hirscher by 1.25sec, with another Austrian, Marco Schwarz, completing the podium 1.59sec off the pace.
It was the second straight win in the discipline this season for Kristoffersen, the Olympic slalom bronze medalist from Sochi, following his victory over Hirscher at Val d’Isere in France earlier this month.
Schwarz’s first podium finish came at the expense of Italy’s 2010 Olympic champion Giuliano Razzoli, who had to settle for fourth spot.
Hirscher’s second place was enough for him to reclaim the overall World Cup lead from Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal, with Kjetil Jansrud third and Kristoffersen fourth overall.
Tuesday’s result completed a good couple of days in Italy for the Norwegian contingent, with Jansrud winning Monday’s inaugural parallel giant slalom at Alta Badia ahead of Svindal.
Hirscher won the giant slalom at Alta Badia Sunday ahead of Kristoffersen. The next World Cup race is a downhill at Santa Caterina on Dec. 27. Later, Hirscher joked that he’d had an early Christmas present. “That’s my Christmas present! I’m not hurt and I was lucky,” joked Hirscher.
Television footage showed the drone smashing to pieces as it hit the ground just behind Hirscher, with a propeller bouncing up into the air. However, Hirscher took a more serious tone with journalists when adding: “It’s unbelievable, it’s incredible, shameful.”
Hirscher revealed he had no idea at the time what had happened, believing an official charged with flattening out the piste after a competitor’s run had hit the ground.
“I just heard a noise, I thought a groomer had fallen over,” said Hirscher. It’s not the first time a major sporting event has been disrupted by a wayward drone.
At September’s US Open Tennis Tournament, eventual women’s champion Flavia Pennetta’s second round match against Monica Niculescu was disrupted by a drone flying over the court and crashing in the stands.
Italian Pennetta admitted to being terrified by the incident at the time, believing it to be a bomb.
“I was a little bit scared, I have to say,” Pennetta said. “I mean, with all the things that happen now in the world, I’m imagining, ‘OK, it’s a bomb’.
“That was my first reaction. I think it’s normal to think something like that.”
A teacher from New York City was later arrested and faced a charge of reckless endangerment.
