On Sunday afternoon, the clouds are waking up over the small Austrian town of Kitzbühel, and Urs Kryenbühl from Switzerland rams his ski poles into the snow.

He tenses the muscles in his body and looks through his goggles at the slope where he can see the first gate of the Streif, the world's most spectacular ski run.

He breathes in and out.

Then he pushes himself off with the sticks.

Christopher Meltzer

Sports correspondent in Munich.

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It's already the fifth World Cup winter in a row that Kryenbühl, 27 years old, is taking part in the Hahnenkamm descent, the king's race in Kitzbühel. He knows the stories people tell about the Streif and survival. And for the past year, he's been appearing in some of these stories himself. The track is perfectly groomed this Sunday - and yet it is probably harder than ever for Kryenbühl. As he has said several times these days, he has to think about what happened a year ago. When he crossed the finish line - and then couldn't get up on his own.

It is now 366 days since Kryenbühl shot down the final ramp in Kitzbühl at 146.7 kilometers per hour - and lost his balance in the air.

He banged his head on the floor.

The first ski came loose.

Kryenbühl rolled over.

The second ski came loose.

Kryenbühl slid across the finish line.

Paramedics immediately sprinted to him.

He then had to be flown to the hospital in a helicopter.

The diagnosis: concussion, broken collarbone, cruciate ligament tear, inner ligament tear.

Since then he has known what survival means.

Discussion about security

On Sunday, Urs Kryenbühl, who returned to the World Cup in December, crosses the finish line on skis and without a fall. He needs for the 3315 meters one minute and 59 seconds. That's enough for 24th place. His compatriots Beat Feuz and Marco Odermatt take the first and second place. There are two Swiss who dominate the Streif that day. And it's also a Swiss who probably changed the world's most spectacular track forever.

When the ski circus left the city after its accident in January 2021, safety was discussed there again. The organizers must have remembered the riders who had complained before the fall that they reached the final jump at too high a speed. Among them was Feuz, who won the Hahnenkamm downhill back then. The criticism led the organizers not only to discuss, but also to act.

They had a natural hill removed in the summer, which enabled them to defuse the route at a key point - after the jump over the so-called local mountain edge. There, where the Austrian Stephan Eberharter had set a new line with his sensational ride in 2004. There, where the drivers slowly run out of power after more than 90 seconds of driving. There, where speed arises that you can hardly control.

With the route correction, the organizers and the Ski World Association FIS tried to prevent the loss of control.

"We also hope that the speeds at which the runners reach the finish jump will be reduced a little so that they can pass the jump without any problems," says Herbert Hauser, the Streif's slope manager.

But now that the drivers have become acquainted with his changed course, they are complaining again.