Like any budding skier, Daniel Albrecht had always dreamed of triumphing at the foot of Austria’s Hahnenkamm mountain but instead, six years ago, he lay face down on the snow, out cold within meters of the finish line.
Online footage of the crash — memorable to everyone except Albrecht who cannot remember anything from the day before the incident to three weeks hence — is not for the faint-hearted.
At the time, he had been the rising star of Swiss skiing with four World Cup wins to his name and a solitary world title — the 2007 Super Combined. On a training run with the finish line in sight, he approached the final jump.
A minor error on his part — exacerbated by the fact he was traveling at 140 kph (87 mph) — saw his skis flap wildly out of control as he battled to regain his balance for 40 meters in the air before landing heavily on his back.
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Part of him, the racer within, would like to be in that start gate to tackle the slope on which he was lucky to survive. But he’s just happy to have had a second chance at life.
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