The Daring Men and Their Flying Boards

Hunting for the highest-possible speed, Harry Egger tries every trick in the book of aerodynamics. Just like the speedski pioneers did 70 years before him.

It’s a race for pure speed: “Kilomètre Lancé” was the name of the events that were invented at the beginning of the 20th century to see just how fast an automobile could go. Skiers adopted the concept in 1930: it was at the fashionable Swiss ski resort of Saint Moritz that the later downhill champion Gustav “Guzzi” Lantschner (AUT) headed down the slope at 105.7 kph. The Tyrolean skier thus set the first world speed record in skiing and established his place in the history of the sport.

Record thanks to technics

The following year Lantschner’s Austrian compatriot Leo Gasperl set a new record of 136.6 kph in the same place, a record that held for 16 years, despite the fact that daring pioneers tried every trick in the book to break it. Aerodynamically shaped backpacks, such as the one used by Gasperl, became a popular motif for photographers. They were also the predecessors of the high-tech equipment that forty-year-old Harry Egger from East Tyrol would try more than 70 years later in his own attempt to set a new world record.

He sees himself as the direct successor of the fearless and creative speed-skiing pioneers – and rightly so. Because what the International Ski Association (FIS) today defines in paragraph 1234.9 of its International Ski Competition Rules as a violation of the regulations was simply called “special equipment” in the 1930s and played an important role in competition. The winner was the competitor who, in addition to the necessary physical and mental abilities, also had enough imagination and technical skill to produce suitable equipment.

Thus far, the highest speed ever attained on skis is 251.40 kph. But the current record-holder, Italy’s Simone Origone, should be worried about the world record he set in 2006. Because Egger has a plan he intends to carry out: to ski so fast that the current record, “if everything goes perfectly, is no more than my warm-up speed.”

From 150 to 200 kph within 35 years

Egger has been the world’s fastest skier once before: in 1999 at 248.105 kph. He thus continues a tradition established by skiers such as Italy’s Zeno Colò, who in 1947 became the first to exceed 150 kph, and America’s Steve McKinney, who in 1982 broke the 200 kph mark. His speed of 201.230 kph was sensational at the time – today it’s a comfortable training pace.

In its timekeeping method, Harry Egger’s attempt to break the world record is also in the same tradition as the first Kilomètre Lancé. The equipment will not only measure his average speed over a distance of 100 meters, but also – in contrast to more recent record-breaking runs – his top speed. And that is the real goal of the East Tyrolean skier: “We want to find out just how fast you can go on skis.”