Jess Blewitt Sustained a Broken Femur and Fractured Vertebrae in her Snowshoe Race Run Crash

 I avoid saying quick/fast/speedy recovery and say recover well/fully and so on. Much more important to not rush and focus on the best recovery possible.

 Couldn't agree more; hopefully she doesn't put the pressure on herself.

Plot twist, we all know a Kiwi lad that broke his back, had to learn to walk again and is racing world cups again.

 @Waldon83: but that guy is a bulldog, hes made for massacres

 Same - was sick to my stomach rest of the day and knew it was bad with the radio silence. Just gutted seeing anyone but even worse with a young kid with so much promise. All I could imagine was seeing my daughter wreck like that. I'd be a mental case. You need your family and besties more than ever now Jess - don't be afraid to lean on them an ask for help - you would be there for them.

 It made me let loose with an involuntary half yell, half gasp that was so loud my wife came running from the other room. Such a brutal crash. I'm so glad she didn't do any spinal cord damage! Take your time and heal well!

 Ya that was about the worst orb I have seen in awhile. Knew it was real bad for the 25 minute course hold.

 right! we were in the woods below wild zone and wondering what the hold was. hearing her cries on redbull after was sickening.

 Yeah, I was standing right next to where she landed. It was brutal

 I would imagine (or hope at least) that anyone doing this professionally has some form of extra insurance to cover any costs incurred in other countries...

 @O1D4: especially if you are going to be participating in an event in a country with a totally bizarre healthcare system like the US.

 I know I buy trip insurance when I enter the US, it's pretty cheap tbh and worth it if anything happens. On a riding trip you just need to make sure it covers sports or racing which usually costs slightly more. better than a 10k+ hospital bill though.

 @TheBrosCloset: Only problem with that travel insurance policy is it specifically WILL NOT cover racing or work related injury, which is both for UCI athletes.

A few years ago, a company out of Canada was one of a few North American companies that provide coverage for race competitors. It's expensive. But it should be in every international race teams budget if you're going to send riders abroad.

No racers have ever made it known what coverage they have. I'd love to accumulate the data and put it into an article though.

 @captain23 would know more than anyone else what types of policies may be available to racers traveling abroad but he may not want to broach the subject in a public forum.

 @bryannn: They just get all the bills. For an Australian (we have universal healthcare) there is no assistance in the USA from our government.

Australia and England have reciprocal universal health arrangements with New Zealand. Australia has the same with those countries and a few more that have universal health care (such as Italy, Finland, Norway Slovenia - known in the USA as 'Commies'). None of those are the USA, whose medical bills are incredibly high (it was one of the reasons myself, and others I know who had the choice, chose not to live there any more).

Experienced travellers don't go to the USA without mega health insurance. If I recall correctly we were not allowed visas (visiting PhD and partner) until we could prove we had insurance. To compete in the USA you need a visa for athletes which I'm sure also requires health insurance.

 @iamamodel: There was a Canadian Rampage rider hurt several years back with major US medical bills that had an insurance plan when he rode Rampage, but it specifically excluded competition, so he incurred tons.

It was quite the massive article with loads of debate about universal healthcare. I'd almost rather find that article and link it than see people go down this rabbit hole again.

 the UCI provides a very minimal level of insurance. I just looked and its about $25k (with 1-5k deductible). That may cover some until she can get home for full care.

Also, there is the option of just never coming back to the USA and telling the providers with the giant bills to pound sand, although that is not a real solution.

 Spaniard here. It depends on the agreement that the origin country has with the US (in case of Spain, none), so one gets all the bills like an american would do.

Enter sports federations: when you are registered and pay the yearly fee with your regional federation for any sport (mtb, climbing, ski, etc) you can enter sanctioned competitions and you have an insurance that covers both national territory and foreign countries (coverage has levels and limits too, $). Note they cover only said activities, not common illness or accident.

A regular tourist may or may not have a private travel insurance, but if willing to do something risky, you better have one (though travel insurances often explicitly leave out stuff like mtb) or the federative license of the sport you're gonna do.

For example, the priciest mountaineering and climbing license to get you covered worldwide in activities done up to 7k meters is around € 200/ year.

I assume everyone racing overseas has his national license regiatration and subsequent insurance

 @iiman: In Australia it has been the case for ages that to race overseas requires an international UCI licence. To get the licence you have to submit proof of insurance that meets certain minimums (also offered through the insurer that the federation here uses for our domestic racing insurance policy too if you can't find your own).
No insurance = no licence.
No licence = no racing.

So, in theory, everyone should be adequately covered.
Also, the cheapest solution for the insurance company is to ship them home (at least outside of a pandemic); bandage them up and ship them back to Australia and then the local health system can care for them (and the insurance doesn't have to pay much more than the flight). While that didn't always seem like the best solution for the injured cyclist, you can understand why the insurer wants to do that.

 @R26: Similar: I've been told that if you crash bad at Les Gets, Morzine etc. you go through Mont Blanc tunnel and say you crashed in Courmeyer, Italy.

 Good point about the racing license. I had to use my USA Cycling domestic license as primary insurance when I blew my ACL at a National. Didn't think about that policy extending internationally if I raced UCI and vice versa for other countries.

That's probably one more issue for the Canadian at Rampage. Obviously the Canadian Cycling federation's race coverage & licensing wouldn't be required for a freeride comp.

Last, flying an injured rider back to avoid mounting out of country medical charges isn't plausible due to the potential complications from major internal injuries

 I've had friends visit from several foreign countries, all with some form of universal care, and none of their home health programs provided any support/subsidy for coverage in the USA. They all had to acquire some form of travel coverage.
Hopefully Jess and/or her sponsor(s) had good insurance. If not, the bill could be extraordinary. In the absence of negotiated rates, the surgeries she mentioned could easily exceed $100k in the U.S.
As an American, I broke a femur in Canada, spent two days in the hospital, and that alone was CA$40k. Can only imagine how much higher that would be in the U.S. for an uninsured foreigner.

 @R26: exactly right on all accounts. I lived in Vancouver for 3 years and had a mate break his neck in a snowboarding accident. He spent a week in hospital there before being flown home to Melbourne on a medivac flight. Him, his girlfriend and a team of doctors. Bill was CAN$250000. All covered by insurance. Was a carpenter, now a quadriplegic. Once he was back home, good old Medicare paid the bills.

 Im not sure, but to me would be pretty bad to not have private health insurance, especially in the US. I know i wish our Govt would make it mandatory for overseas travellers to have to have health insurance, as the cost to our healthcare is too much,but oh well

 @mtb-thetown: 25k , well in America that probably covers the ambulance, couple of plasters and 2-3 nights in hospital : ), let alone MRI, cat scan xray, ect ect

 @iamamodel: funny as

 At some point there's diminishing return to making the events more and more technical and always faster and harder... The equipment and riders just won't be able to keep up forever! I understand they're trying to please the crowd and it's a dick sizing contest to see who will build the most hardcore trail, but f*cking hell, do we need to wait until some professionals decide to boycott the events or die before things calm down (Whistler Olympics anyone?)

 @MatLax00: there is something to be said for more technical sections in downhill being safer since the tech makes you slow down, and if you are going slower you are less likely to have a catastrophic injury. Going down at 20mph in rock garden may suck, but it's generally better than going down at 40mph in a faster section like this.

 I actually quite racing elite level DH in the late 90s/early 2000s when road gaps and big super committing features became obligatory, because I just didn't have it in me to risk my life. Prior to that DH was more similar to the downhill portions of an XC track, though there was plenty of relatively low speed tech (ie the old Deer Valley NCS trail) and while you could certainly get hurt, I don't think you could have had a crash like this young lady did.

The bikes were a lot less capable too, of course.

That said, I get that people like to see speed and airtime. Hell, I like to see that stuff. I'm always impressed that nobody has died (to my knowledge) hitting a tree at 30+ mph/still in the air so maybe I'm just an old sissy hypocrite.

-W

 @sbenkd29: A girl got hurt. Focus on her, not the flaws you find in the world around it. It's not a perfect world & you're not it's movie critic.

 I had the exact opposite reaction. The Redbull broadcast respectfully gave her some privacy and let the medical staff do their job, rather than getting all up in there with cameras, speculation, etc. and making a further spectacle of a horrible accident. Also notable that they did not replay the crash: from where I’m sitting that was classy.

 edited

 I disagree. None of our business. We are consumers of bike racing, not catastrophic trauma and medical diag/info…

If I wreck and get back on the bike and get to the finish line? Put a mic in my face and ask me.

If I wreck and am Immobilized and there’s no easy track side diagnosis?

Leave me with my dignity and don’t speculate about my wellbeing. I’ll clue you in when I’m good and ready.

 @budgie-1: I hear you. I wasn't looking for video coverage of them helping her, just commentary updates that she was being taken care of, or that she was at least stable and not critical. They also could have posted an update online post race or something, anything, other than crickets.

 @benkd29: I mean by the time she would’ve been flown to hospital, stabilized, imaged, and several orthopedics consulted the race would’ve been long over.

 @benkd29: Not sure if you've been to Snowshoe, but there is this thing at the base of the mtn: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Bank_Telescope

So cell towers are a no go. Unless you're in the village on wifi using cellular wifi, cell service is 1% possible. Assuming she's in the Elkins Trauma unit, she and her team/family aren't grabbing the hall phone to call anyone up the mountain. Definitely not calling or texting anyone on Western Territory.

It simply is impossible to do so. And as Bass points out, it's private. She or the team could have let the world know 2 weeks ago, but they chose NOT to until now.