VIENNA, Oct 31: France’s top woman skier Regine Cavagnoud died on Wednesday from brain injuries sustained in a high-speed collision in Austria two days earlier.

“Cavagnoud died this morning from her severe injuries. Decisive was the severe damage to the brain,” her doctors said in a statement from the Innsbruck hospital where the 31-year-old underwent emergency surgery on Monday.

Cavaganoud, who died at 0840 GMT, suffered severe brain damage and internal injuries after ramming into a trainer at 100 kph during practice on the Pitz Valley glacier in Tyrol. She had been in a coma since the crash.

“We carried out numerous examinations this morning and the results were clear — the majority of her brain was not being supplied with blood anymore and therefore wasn’t functioning,” said Dr. Wolfgang Koller of the intensive care unit.

Her death is the first of a top flight skier during competition or training since Austria’s Ulrike Maier broke her neck after crashing in a World Cup downhill in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany in 1994.

Cavagnoud, from La Clusaz, had been too weak to undergo any more surgery on Tuesday and needed resuscitation on the glacier after suffering temporary heart failure.

Cavagnoud had started the season in fine style when she placed a surprise third in the opening giant slalom at Soelden, just two days before her fatal crash.

The accident in the neighbouring Pitz Valley happened when she collided head on with German youth trainer Markus Anwander as he crossed her track down the glacier.

The Tyrolean provincial police said the accident appeared to have been the result of a tragic misunderstanding between the French and German ski teams, who were both training on the glacier west of Innsbruck.

“The downhill training course was cordoned off from the public. Both head coaches had agreed that the track would be smoothed over after the fourth run,” the police said in a statement.

“After the last German racer had finished her run, Anwander skied onto the piste just as Cavagnoud sped over a hidden hump.”

Cavagnoud’s head crashed into Anwander’s, and both fell 100 metres down the last part of the steep course.

Anwander’s condition remains critical, although it has stabilised, and doctors are due to operate on his spine later on Wednesday.

Cavagnoud, a customs officer by profession, won a gold medal in super-G at the world championships in St Anton in February. Super-G is a speed discipline set slightly slower on a downhill course.

The Frenchwoman, who finished third in last season’s overall World Cup standings, had just come back from an injury in training in Chile on August 17 when she sustained minor concussion and partially tore her left ankle ligament.

Her strong showing in the giant slalom at Soelden was all the more impressive since she is more at home in the outright speed events of downhill and super-G.

Skiers are held in high respect for their constant proximity to danger even by fellow athletes in high-speed sports such as motor racing.

No other sport exposes participants so much, just a few centimetres of ski dividing the racers from the snow or ice and with little protective padding.

Austrian Gernot Reinstadler died when he broke his pelvis and suffered massive internal injuries in a crash during training for a World Cup downhill in Wengen in 1991.

Monday’s accident on the Tyrolean glacier was similar to one in downhill training at the 1996 world championships in Sierra Nevada when Russia’s Tatjana Lebedeva collided with an FIS representative. Both suffered broken legs.

Austria’s double Olympic champion Petra Kronberger retired at the peak of a glittering career after becoming scared for her life.

Kronberger crashed heavily and injured her knee in a super-G at the 1991 world championships in Saalbach after taking gold in the downhill.—Reuters