MIPS Wins Two Gold Medals this Weekend in Austria

February 13, 2013 (Schladming and Hochfügen, Austria) Aksel Lund Svindal won the men’s downhill title at the Alpine Skiing World Championships after completing a near perfect run in Schladming, Austria on Saturday wearing a Sweet Protection helmet equipped with the MIPS Brain Protection System. That same day at the Freeride World Qualifier (FWQ) competition in Hochfügen, Austria, Flo Orley won first place in the men’s snowboarding competition sporting the POC Receptor Backcountry MIPS.

“We would like to congratulate Aksel and Flo on their victories and acknowledge that MIPS is an integral part of their safety equipment, enabling them to go all out and perform at their best.” said Niklas Steenberg, MIPS CEO.

Svindal finished nearly a half second ahead of runner up Klaus Kroell, earning him his second World Championship title in downhill and the fifth overall World Championship gold medal of his career. Earlier this year, MIPS partnered with Sweet Protection to release the Rooster Corsa, one of the first ski race helmets with MIPS. The helmet, made from pre-preg carbon and thermoplastic fibers, is baked in an autoclave to combine low volume and weight with great protection capabilities. Svindal is the first skier to wear a MIPS helmet in the Alpine Skiing World Championships.

“Skiing with the Rooster Corsa feels very natural. That is not just because of the light weight and the low volume and the fit, but also because of how well you can hear and feel the elements when skiing. How can a helmet that is so light and offers such a low volume still offer great protection? I actually had to look at the test results twice” says Svindal.

In Hochfugen, 38-year-old POC snowboard athlete Flo Orley took first after completing a clean run that included five cliff drops. Fifty centimeters of snow covered the technical course that provided near perfect conditions for the competition. This is Orley’s first gold medal at a FWQ event and fourth podium in the Freeride World Tour.

MIPS is the global leader in helmet safety technologies with its revolutionary and patented MIPS Brain Protection System (Multi-directional Impact Protection System). MIPS supplies its patented MIPS system to manufacturers of motorcycle, equestrian, ice hockey, American football, bike and ski/snowboarding helmets all over the world. MIPS was founded in 2001 and has its roots in biomechanical and neuroscience research at the Royal Institute of Technology and the Karolinska University Hospital Institute in Sweden, two of the world’s leading technical and medical universities. The company is based in Stockholm, Sweden.