MIRACLE AT BEAVER CREEK
There will be a miracle on Sunday, December 2, at Beaver Creek, Colorado. Dane Spencer will plant his poles over the starting wand, and at the fifth 'beep,' he will push off and race down the World Cup GS course. It's a day no one ever thought would happen.
Last Valentine's Day, Spencer crashed in a downhill race at 70 miles an hour. His fall was a horror. He broke his neck and his pelvis so badly that both injuries were potentially fatal. He lost 75 percent of his blood through internal bleeding, and had to be given a total blood transfusion. Surgeons said he had only a two percent chance of surviving, and would probably be a quadriplegic if he did survive.
At first, U. S. ski team teammates just prayed for the 30-year-old Spencer to live. Then they hoped he would be able to walk again. Few ever thought the 11-year ski team veteran would be racing again on the World Cup before the year was over.
A ski team press release says that when men's head coach Phil McNichol got news of Spencer's crash, he felt like he was hit by a bus. "When you hear about someone breaking their neck, especially skiing, paralysis is more common than not."
There was an awful deja vu quality about the crash---it happened on the same downhill course at Big Sky, Montana, where Olympic Gold medalist Bill Johnson fell, suffering permanent brain damage.
In a strange twist of fate, an emergency room surgeon at the hospital where Spencer was taken had been watching the race on TV. After seeing the crash, he got ready for the incoming, desperately injured racer. Spencer credits the doctor's actions for his remarkable recovery, which happened in spite of radical surgeries and five weeks in a halo neck brace.
The only aftermath Spencer still deals with is his fear-year, something USSA says is common after bad crashes. A press release quotes Spencer as addressing that issue, which can end a racer's career: "Losing that fearless edge is definitely tough. You can't hesitate, ever (as a racer). I'm still having issues with hesitating at times," Spencer is quoted as saying.
He will not be racing the frightening Birds of Prey downhill this year. But he will be a hard competitor in the Beaver Creek World Cup giant slalom, just two days later.
It doesn't matter where Spencer finishes. As everyone in the ski racing world knows, as soon as he pushes out of the start, he's already won.