Whether it’s speeding down natural slopes or vaulting over man-made ramps, alpine skiing is an incredibly risky sport. However, enthusiasts don’t shy away from perfect skills despite the risk and even accidents. Slope-style world champion Andri Ragettli’s latest attempt would be the perfect example of the kind of risks skiers knowingly take in pursuit of perfecting their craft.

In a clip titled “What just happened?”, Ragettli uploaded footage of a botched jump that could’ve ended in disaster. The footage shows the freestyle skier approaching a huge ramp at blistering speed before facing backward and launching into a jump. The jump involved at least three spins in midair before landing backward after a final flip.

Although the high-flying skiing icon tried to chain all the moves together, he literally ran out of air time. This miscalculation resulted in the five-time Crystal Globe winner crash landing yet somehow managing to avoid landing face first on the slope. However, what truly shocked skiing fans was the athlete brushing off the crash and walking away unscathed.

“OMG! This was such an accident,” one fan commented in the post, seeing Andri Ragettli narrowly avoid serious injury. The aftermath of the crash showed just how lucky the slope-style champion got, as one of his skis got ripped from his foot and continued down the slope as the skier recovered. Ragettli later included a snapshot of the boot attachment of the destroyed ski to show the intensity of the impact.

The image captured only half of the bright red boot shell still attached to the ski. However, the sheer force of the crash ripped the upper half of the boot, along with the straps and safety clips. The fact that Ragettli escaped without serious injury to his foot or ankle amazed fans. “Bro!!! Hope you didn’t get injured,” inquired one concerned fan. In fact, that was all they could talk about.

In light of recent events, concerned skiing enthusiasts couldn’t believe their eyes

Despite safety measures including redesigning particularly risky sections of several tracks, serious injuries have become more common. Earlier this year, alpine skiing legend Mikaela Shiffrin missed out on reaching the historic 100 World Cup victories milestone thanks to a crash at Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. And while Shiffrin returned to action in two months, her boyfriend had a far more severe crash.

Just weeks ahead of Shiffrin’s crash, her boyfriend and fellow alpine skiing champion Aleksander Aamodt Kilde met a massive accident while skiing in Switzerland. Kilde still hasn’t fully recovered from the crash and won’t ski again until 2025. So, fans were in absolute disbelief when Ragettli walked off.

“That’s insane! The force required to bust a boot shell… And he popped back up like no prob,” commented one fan in disbelief. The 26 is no stranger to what can happen when stunts go wrong. In 2022, once such a crash nearly ended the skier’s career. He needed to undergo knee reconstruction surgery and months of intensive rehab to bounce back.

The reactions were no different on TikTok. “Feet more stable than the ski boot,” commented one TikTok user. Meanwhile, another fan simply wrote, “How?”, to which the freestyle skier responded with “IDK haha.” However, despite the few light-hearted comments, the skiing community understood that it was a lucky escape, in light of a terrible tragedy.

While Shiffrin and Kilde crashed earlier this year and were lucky to survive, 19-year-old skiing prodigy Matilde Leorenzi wasn’t so lucky. Just two days after the FIS World Cup kicked off in October, Lorenzi met with a fatal crash in Italy. Eyewitnesses recounted Lornezi’s skis separating right before a jump, followed by a botched landing and a massive crash.

While Lorenzi wasn’t attempting a massive jump like Andri Ragettli the resulting crash turned out to be fatal in her case. So it’s a surprise the skiing community was shocked to see footage of Ragettli’s crash.