Austrian racer Matthias Mayer, winner of the Downhill at the Sochi Olympics, has become the first racer to win an FIS World cup race whilst wearing an airbag.
Mayer won the Alpine World Cup Tour Super G at the Hahnenkamm-Rennen in Kitzbühel to claim the very first FIS Alpine victory for the Dainese D-air air bag.
The FIS, Dainese and World Cup racers including Mayer have been working on the airbag system, to help protect racers in high speed crashes, for some years and the airbags have been permitted for use in World Cup races, but not compulsory, for several seasons now. The first live test of the bags was carried out by British speed skier Jan Farrell in Spain a few years ago.
Austrian skier Mayer is a strong supporter of the technology and has worked very closely with the Dainese Science and Research Center to develop and improve the D-air® Ski airbag system, saying that he felt safer wearing it, allowing him to ski more confidently.
“Dainese was the first brand able to protect skiers with the state-of-the-art protection technology, the D-air® Ski, the Dainese electronic airbag platform. Thanks to the constant use of ever more sophisticated technologies, Dainese is redefining protective standards for skiers. What a success after so many years of development!” said a spokesperson for the company.
