Hermann Maier
The Herminator's horrific
spill in 1998
by Gerry Brown
He's dead.
That was what came to mind after Hermann
Maier's spectacular crash in Nagano.
It
was easily the worst wipeout on skis seen since Yugoslavian ski jumper Vinko
Bogataj tumbled off the ramp at the 1970 International Ski Flying Championships
and into the collective consciousness of American sports fans as "the agony
of defeat guy" seen on ABC's Wide World of Sports opening sequence.
Austria's Maier, affectionately nicknamed "Das Monster" and "the
Herminator" by his fans, was the best skier in the world at the time and a
heavy gold-medal favorite.
He tried to turn left on an icy bend during
his downhill run at the 1998 Winter Games, but
his skis didn't catch the snow and his body flew off the course at over 70
mph.
The high winds, which had forced the course to be altered before
the race, carried him into the air like a plastic grocery bag.
He
hurtled through the air horizontally before turning into a freak-show tumble,
and was finally caught by some orange safety nets after traveling more than
50 yards.
He had to be dead.
"I was very fast and there
was a lot of wind from the back side," he said afterward. "And I went up in
the air and was looking at the sky. I looked down at the snow and waited for
the crash."
The Austrian downhiller not only survived the wreck, but
he got up and walked off the course. In fact, he was fine. The only things
hurting were his shoulder and knee.
In the days following, the Herminator
proved his toughness by coming back to compete after what could have easily
been a life-ending, or at least career-ending, wreck. Just 24 hours later
he was back on the slopes, competing against the best in the world.
Incredibly, considering his sprained knee and the fresh
memories of his nightmare crash, Maier dominated, winning gold medals in the super G and giant slalom.
It was obvious
why the man was called "Das Monster." He couldn't be killed.
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