'This course can kill you': A treacherous downhill slope- 10 don't make it down

in training today- two out with injuries.

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The potential for crashes and serious injury will be high when the men's downhill at the Sochi Olympics opens the Alpine skiing medal events Sunday on a course that is as tough as they come.

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Rok Perko of Slovenia knows that now. The first starter Saturday, Perko took the wrong direction off a jump three-fourths of the way down and ended up with his face bloodied and possibly a broken nose.

American downhiller Marco Sullivan, the next starter, ran into trouble when he lost focus for an instant over the Bear's Brow jump a little farther down.

Sullivan's skis clicked together and he was heading for the safety netting until he managed a last-second recovery.

"Luckily I was able to stay with it. It wouldn't have been good," said Sullivan, who is from Squaw Valley, Calif. "It was definitely an adrenalin shot."

Brice Roger of France, the third starter, broke both the bone and the ligaments in his right knee in a fall on the top section.

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At 3.5-kilometers (2.17 miles), the Rosa Khutor course is longer than all the World Cup downhills except for the classic piste in Wengen, Switzerland. But unlike Wengen, there are no long gliding sections where racers can recover for a moment and regain their breath.

"It's relentless," said Steven Nyman, another American. "It turns three-fourths of the way down and then you think, 'OK, I can relax.' And then it's just bumps on the flats and you think, 'Great, I'm just going to rattle.' And then you have to take off these jumps and be in a balanced position. If it's smooth it's much safer off those jumps but if you have those rattles you have to prepare for that."

The course features three big jumps, the first of which, the Russian Trampoline, has a landing area so icy and hard that it resembles an ice hockey rink.


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http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/this-course-can-kill-you-a-treacherous-downhill-slope-480966