Polish Skier Finishes Downhill Race On A Single Ski

Pawel Babicki finished 67th out of 67 competitors at a downhill race last week in Bormio, Italy. He trailed eventual winner Dominik Paris by 36 seconds, which is all the more impressive considering that Babicki lost his left ski before the halfway point of the famous Stelvio downhill run.

Babicki’s run recalls an almost identical feat in 2005. Bode Miller was tearing up the world championships at Bormio and won gold medals in the super-G and downhill. He shed his left ski during the downhill segment of the combined and went on to finish anyway.

Babicki, who is still hoping to qualify for next month’s Winter Olympics, even said he was inspired by Miller to keep going on one ski:

“It was a spontaneous decision,” he said. “When I lost the ski I was like, ‘Come on, I’ve seen Bode Miller’s run so many times. I’m going to do everything I can to reach the finish,’”

h/t Colin