Mateusz Sochowicz in the 2018 Winter Olympics.
The surgery on Sochowicz's knee was reported to be a success.
REUTERS/Edgar Su
  • Olympic luge hopeful Mateusz Sochowicz suffered a horror crash in China, breaking his knee and cutting his leg to the bone.
  • The crash occurred at the track where the Beijing Olympic luge event will take place in February.
  • Sochowicz accused track staff of "incompetence," but Chinese media claimed his team were "impressed" by the facilities.

Chinese state media claimed that a Polish luge team was "impressed" by a track built for the Beijing Winter Olympics, despite its star athlete being seriously injured when a gate on the run was wrongly left closed.

Mateusz Sochowicz suffered the injury when he collided with a barrier that was meant to be closed during a training event. As well as the injury to his left knee, his right leg was cut to the bone.

The 25-year-old, who now faces a race to be back in time for the start of the games in February, was training at one of the venues for the Beijing Games in Yanqing, an area northwest of Beijing.

The Olympic rings beside the Big Air Shougang, a venue of Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
Beijing will host the winter games in February.
Yi Haifei/China News Service via Getty Images

Speaking to Polish media after his horror crash, Sochowicz called the on-track team incompetent and described the scenes as "dante-esque"

"The track team showed great incompetence," he told Polish media outlet Onet. "They didn't know what to do at all. Someone came to me and tried to touch my exposed bone with a glove.

"Dante-esque scenes were happening there."

Despite Sochowicz's criticism, Chinese state media claimed the Polish team was impressed with the track.

Beijing Olympics 2022
VCG/VCG via Getty Images

In a now-deleted article on Chinese news site Xinhua, the Poles were reported as being "impressed by the infrastructure in China."

Xinhua also reported the coach of the Poland team Marek Skowronski as saying: "The track is technically difficult, but it looks pretty safe."

Following the deletion of the original article, a second post was published on Wednesday, which said Beijing 2022 organizers "have sent their best regards" to Sochowicz.

The article also states that following the incident "the International Luge Federation and the venue operational team carried out a thorough inspection of the track and adapted the arrangement of the training."

It did not, however, make any mention whatsoever as to how Sochowicz's injury came about, saying simply that he "got injured."

Read the original article on Insider