Okay, so what was all the concern about those new sticks? Ted Ligety won his first World Cup of the season in Soelden, Austria, not by a little, but by an unprecedented 2.75-seconds, smashing a 34-year-old mark for margin of victory in a GS. Ligety, you may recall, has been the most outspoken critic of FIS’s new rules that say that pros can’t be on skis that turn more sharply than 35 meters; last year’s sidecut allowed a 27 meter radius. FIS’s logic is that a ski that can turn too tightly leads to more knee damage, though they based their conclusions not on hard and fast science, but on subjective interviews with athletes who have been injured. The critique likely won’t die down, despite pros like Ligety adapting quickly, since the manufacturers don’t like holding back innovation — the general public now gets to ski higher tech planks than the pros. Also, just wait until a pro blows out an ACL. It’s not like it didn’t happen when skis barely turned at all. Via Bleacher Report.

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Tags: Skiing

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