After bobsleigh horror crash

Swiss outraged: “Accepted the death”

Around a month after his horror crash in training in Altenberg, Swiss bobsleigh pusher Sandro Michel has spoken out and made accusations. "They accepted a death," complains the 27-year-old. 

"In my opinion, it's extremely weak of the track operators not to have tackled this long ago and, to put it bluntly, to have simply accepted a death. It was relatively close in my case," the Swiss rider told Keystone-SDA.

In mid-February, Michel suffered life-threatening injuries in a training crash in Germany. The Altenberg ice track is known as one of the most dangerous, with serious falls occurring time and again. Michel was thrown out of a four-man bobsleigh and rolled over by the sled while lying unconscious on the track.  

Can no longer remember
"The last thing I can remember is running in, and then back in hospital in Dresden," says the 27-year-old, describing the drama. He then had to have four operations. "It dislocated my hip, the femur was visible. Then I broke several ribs and had a lung haemorrhage. In Aarau, they also had to fix muscles in my ribcage," says Michel, giving an insight into his ordeal.

In the clinic, the Swiss athlete lost around 15 kilos in weight. He waited in vain for a reaction from the international bobsleigh federation; they didn't even enquire about his condition, says Michel: "I have to say I'm extremely disappointed.