Anyone who watched the Women’s Slopestyle Showboarding today
surely saw what was an absolutely alarming crash in Sarka Pancochova’s second
run of the finals. This was the kind of crash that can be fatal, and it broke
her helmet. But without that helmet, it would have been her skull. So that
helmet saved her life, and saved the competition a lot of potential scandal and
embarrassment. (Although I think saving the life is more important.)
I’m not sure she’s 100% fine yet. Remember, Natasha
Richardson seemed fine after hitting her head while skiing, but she died later
of the head injury. But if Sarka is fine after this crash, then I have to think
she is the poster girl for helmets. In fact, if she’s fine after this crash,
she not only should be in ads for her brand of helmets, but she should be in
PSAs for helmet safety in every country that has snow sports (or bicycling, or
skateboarding, or whatever else may require a helmet).
Essentially, the ad/PSA would show the crash, show the
cracked helmet, and then show Sarka fine and acting normally after the crash,
and then back in competition in a future event, and it just says: “Wear a
helmet. She’s alive because she wore a helmet.” (And that claim is absolutely
true: without that helmet, there would have been a death on the snow today.) Also,
Sarka could say: “Everyone says I’m so hard-headed, but I still need a
helmet. And so do you.”
She may not have won a medal after crashing out, but for
being such a fierce competitor, and for surviving such an awful crash (where
her head whipped backwards into the slope in what looked like a hammer blow),
she really ought to be get a big advertising sponsorship from this.
I really hope there’s no lasting damage from that crash, as
it really looked near fatal to me.
Here’s a story and video of the crash:
An ad like what I have suggested above really may save lives, and someone ought to make it.
