Imagine being seconds away from a disaster, but you spin it into a heroic save. A 21-year-old skier did just that at the LAAX Open 2026 final, the last World Cup stop before the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics. This year, amid winners of the event like Eileen Gu and Birk Ruud, a young skiing star managed to steal a place under the LAAX spotlight too, with his dramatic save.

Austrian freestyle skiing star, Matej Svancer dodged a disastrous crash by a whisker and left the entire crowd stunned with his performance at the LAAX Open. So, what really went down?

Midway through his men’s slopestyle finale performance, Svancer’s right ski got detached and flew away. This normally would have resulted in the skier crashing down. But Svancer pulled off a miracle save by spinning a full 1080-degree and landing on just one leg. This left the entire crowd, even the commentators stunned.

Slopestyle skiing accidents have resulted in some extremely dangerous crashes in the past. Thus, what Svancer pulled off mid-air to avert one of those, didn’t look easy to the onlookers. Confirming the same, his words following his performance reflected just how challenging this maneuver was.

“It was a cool course this year with a good flow. I tried to put together a creative run, and it worked out well. I’m glad I made it through the lost ski action because it wasn’t as chill as it might have looked,” the Austrian skier said, as reported by SportReport (translated from German).

This effort eventually earned Svancer a second place with 84.08 points, while Norwegian Birk Ruud finished first with 85.08 points, followed by Canada’s Evan McEachran finished third with 82.70 points. And now, this jaw-dropping moment is an added feather in his cap as a skier.

Matej Svancer is a skiing pro in the making

At just 15 years old, Matej Svancer was crowned ‘Big Air’ Champion at the Winter Youth Olympic Games Lausanne 2020. This victory announced his arrival on the world stage, turning a lot of heads. And well, he followed his achievement with a message that made his ambitions clear.

“If I won this prize, it would prove that over the last three years I gave it my best shot at bringing my freestyle skiing to a professional level. It would also allow me to show other young athletes that this sport is cool and they should try it out,” a young Svancer said. 

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Just a year later, in Krasnoyarsk, he proved his versatility by becoming the junior world champion in slopestyle. Svancer also achieved multiple World Cup victories in the Bug Air competition in Chur and Steamboat Springs after that.

Clearly, his career has been a masterclass in progression, and the way he made this mid-air recovery shows he has a bright future in skiing!