Pernilla Wiberg share cabin with Ulrike Maier. It is January 29, 1994, and Pernilla and the then 26-year-old Ulrike are fierce competitors. The atmosphere has been a bit frosty between them before, but that is changing now.
In Stjärnorna på slotlotet, Pernilla Wiberg tells about the meeting that she will never forget.
Ulrike Maier. Image source: AP/TT BildPernilla Wiberg witnessed Ulrike Maier’s accident
– She starts talking to me. Super nice all the way up in the gondola. I’m caught off guard, because neither of us have spoken before. She is really nice. What have I been thinking that she is a rotten egg. She wasn’t at all. Super nice as well, says Pernilla Wiberg.
They start. Pernilla has start number 15. Ulrike has the start number after. It’s icy on the hill. A couple of hours before the race, Ulrike has expressed her concern about just that, something like The Independent has written about.
Ulrike Maier at another race in 1992. Image source: AP Photo/Michel Lipchitz/TT Bild
– I see her coming through the course. All of a sudden you see that she will never be able to do this line. It’s just deathly quiet. She becomes unconscious. It can be seen in the pictures. My trainer is the first to arrive and starts CPR. At this point, we begin to understand that this does not look good, says Pernilla.
Ulrike Maier is only 26 years old. During the accident, the helmet flies off and she breaks her neck. She dies immediately. Image source: AP/TT Image
Ulrike’s fiance sits at home in Rauris, Austria Hubert Schweighofer and the daughter Melanie. They follow the race from the sofa and witness the terrible accident live.
– I don’t want mother to bleed, said the then 4-year-old Melanie to her father after the crash, writes The Express.
A helicopter picks up Ulrike Maier and takes her to a hospital in Murnau am Staffelsee. Image source: SVT
A little later in the evening, at the hotel, Pernilla Wiberg is met with the news that Ulrike has passed away.
– It’s so crazy. A child who may have been 4-5 years old at this time. Just finding out that a colleague is no longer there, against whom you fought so much, is so tragic and it puts your sport in a completely different perspective. What powers and dangers actually exist in what you are doing, says Pernilla in Stjärnorna paslotlett.
Ulrike had planned to shut down the contestants for good after the season. She was to marry Hubert in the church she was buried in instead.
Ulrike Maier was a two-time world champion. Image source: AP Photo/TT BildPernilla Wiberg about the fight with the photographers
In Sierra Nevada, Spain, a memorial service is organized for Ulrike. The place is full of photographers who, among other things, take pictures of Pernilla.
– It was a big thing internationally. Then the presenter says that okay, now the media have got their pictures. Now the girls will have their moment to themselves and remember their friend, says Pernilla.
Pernilla tells us that the collective journalist corps is going in the other direction. But two newspapers remain.
– During this moment, which should be our moment to honor Ulrike Maier’s memory, those murvlers are standing there and will try to get a picture when the tears are rolling and one with the third. I’m getting so angry, I can’t concentrate on the fact that this is a memorial service. I tell my coach that “now we go”. Now we run from here, says Pernilla.
Pernilla Wiberg tells us that two photographers choose to stay and they continue to photograph during the memorial service. Image source: SVT
The following day, Pernilla sees the two photographers again. Pernilla notices that they are trying to photograph her and then turns her back on them.
– And then I hear “You fucking pussy!”. Then it burns inside me. Then I go back up. It almost becomes a scuffle. I am so angry and I scold these two for notes, says Pernilla Wiberg.
Pernilla Wiberg tells us that she is “on fire”. Image source: SVT
A little later in the evening, when Pernilla is back in her hotel room, a cleaning lady knocks on the door. She has something with her.
– The story ends quite well actually. Then it’s a box of chocolates and an apology from both of these two. It was so nice, you know yourself that “sorry seems to be the hardest word to say”. It is often like that. They understood that there they had crossed a line, she concludes.
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