VIDEO SHOWS: INTERVIEW WITH VIX PROTECTION FOUNDER, VICTOR WIACEK/ FILE STILLS OF SKI ACCIDENTS RESULTING IN LACERATIONS/ FILE OF WIACEK DEMONSTRATING HIS CUT-RESISTANT UNDERWEAR/ RECENT FOOTAGE FROM LIVIGNO SKI RESORT, A VENUE OF THE 2026 MILANO-CORTINA WINTER GAMES SHOWS: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JANUARY 21, 2026) (REUTERS – Access all) 1. (SOUNDBITE) (English) VIX PROTECTION FOUNDER, VICTOR WIACEK, ON HIS ACCIDENT, SAYING: "I couldn't have been going more than 25 miles per hour, which is nothing in our sport. And I was simply off balance. I saw a ski skate ahead of me and it fell on its side in some soft snow. And I slowly just kind of leaned in and fell onto the ski so that by the moment I hit the snow, the midpoint of my thigh hit the tail of the ski. And I practically, I rode the whole ski from tail to tip. And again, this is not one of those injuries that crosses your mind as one of the potential options. So, every single time you go down, you do have this checklist. You're thinking, ‘Okay, is my head okay? Did I hit something? Do I feel some strain on my neck that could indicate some sort of concussion? No. Do I did I feel some kind of twisting in my leg,’ – which is typically the sign of a torn ligament, which leads to a pop. Nothing like that. But what I did notice was that my vision went completely red. So, I thought I must have somehow hit my head in a way — in an atypical manner. I'm not sure. My vision went red because there was blood on my goggles. It turns out that I had cut my thigh so deep all the way down to the femur, to the point where it was – don't know how graphic I can get you can cut out whatever you'd like – but it was squirting blood all over the place and all over onto me under quite a bit of pressure. And I cut my thigh, cut through all the muscular tissue there, the nerves, the IT band. And apparently I had just nicked the femoral artery and I was losing blood ridiculously quickly." WENGEN, SWITZERLAND (FILE – JANUARY 13, 2024) (REUTERS – Access all) (MUTE) 2. STILL OF NORWAY'S ALEKSANDER AAMODT KILDE CRASHING DURING ALPINE SKI WORLD CUP MEN'S DOWNHILL RACE 3. STILL OF KILDE AFTER CRASHING 4. STILL OF KILDE RECEIVING MEDICAL ATTENTION 5. STILL OF KILDE BEING AIRLIFTED AWAY NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JANUARY 21, 2026) (REUTERS – Access all) 6. (SOUNDBITE) (English) VIX PROTECTION FOUNDER, VICTOR WIACEK, ON HIS ACCIDENT, SAYING: "The only reason I survived was because a group of coaches, one of whom was carrying a military-grade tourniquet, basically pounced on me and they applied, I believe it was, I had two jackets that were tied around my leg to cut off the circulation, one belt, and then finally the tourniquet, which ultimately cut off the circulation. And I still lost about half the blood of my body. I was told that I still should have died, but without a doubt, if it wasn't for those measures, I would not be here today." BERN, SWITZERLAND (FILE – JANUARY 28, 2024) (ALEKSANDER AAMODT KILDE VIA X – No resale/ Must on-screen courtesy 'Aleksander Aamodt Kilde via X') (MUTE) 7. VARIOUS (THREE) STILL PHOTOGRAPHS OF KILDE AND HIS INJURIES WHEN HE WAS IN HOSPITAL NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JANUARY 21, 2026) (REUTERS – Access all) 8. (SOUNDBITE) (English) VIX PROTECTION FOUNDER, VICTOR WIACEK, ON HIS ACCIDENT, SAYING: "I don't want to say that it was some kind of divine intervention or meant to be, but truly it felt immediately like this was my purpose. And I've gotten people to laugh at me for this, but I genuinely think that the only reason that I survived that day was because I had a purpose. And this was that purpose: to eliminate skill lacerations from the sport entirely." BEAVER CREEK, COLORADO, UNITED STATES (FILE – NOVEMBER 27, 2007) (REUTERS – Access all) (MUTE) 9. VARIOUS (THREE) STILLS OF NORWAY'S AKSEL LUND SVINDAL LYING BLOODIED AFTER CRASHING DURING TRAINING RUN FOR MEN'S WORLD CUP DOWNHILL NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JANUARY 21, 2026) (REUTERS – Access all) 10. (SOUNDBITE) (English) VIX PROTECTION FOUNDER, VICTOR WIACEK, ON HIS ACCIDENT, SAYING: "This only injury that we can virtually eliminate from the sport. There's nothing we can do about torn ACLs. By all estimates, it seems that this is the fourth most common injury in the sport after broken bones, head trauma and torn ligaments. I'm not sure about the order there. But of those four, we can't do a whole lot about head trauma. We can wear helmets and mitigate the injuries, but we're never going to eliminate those. Torn ACLs, we can stretch before we go skiing, I guess. We can take measures like those. For broken bones, I don't know, we can drink milk. I'm not even sure if that has any veracity to it, whether that actually works. But by wearing this garment, we can essentially eliminate an entire category of injury. That’s unheard of in this sport. And I think a really, really exciting opportunity to explore." UNKNOWN LOCATION (FILE) (VICTOR WIACEK – No resales. No monetisation.) 11. WIACEK DEMONSTRATING CUT-RESISTANT UNDERWEAR USING A KNIFE AND A TOWEL NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JANUARY 21, 2026) (REUTERS – Access all) 12. WIACEK SHOWING OFF CUT-RESISTANT UNDERWEAR / (SOUNDBITE) (English) VIX PROTECTION FOUNDER, VICTOR WIACEK, SAYING: "These are — they feel completely lightweight, natural, normal. They look, feel, just like normal long underwear. But, the only difference is, I can quickly show you up close here. They're ridiculously stretchy. They're breathable, lightweight, relatively warm. Not quite like a Merino wool or something like that that you'd find. But competitive racers don't want to be too hot anyway." UNKNOWN LOCATION (FILE) (VICTOR WIACEK – No resales. No monetisation.) 13. WIACEK DEMONSTRATING CUT-RESISTANT UNDERWEAR BY USING A MACHETE AGAINST A TYPICAL BASE LAYER NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JANUARY 21, 2026) (REUTERS – Access all) 14. WIACEK DEMONSTRATING CUT-RESISTANT UNDERWEAR USING TWO TYPES OF KNIVES AND A MACHETE AS HE EXPLAINS WHILE SPEAKING TO CAMERA LIVIGNO, ITALY (RECENT – JANUARY 8, 2026) (REUTERS – Access all) 15. SIGN FOR THE MILANO-CORTINA WINTER OLYMPICS AS SNOW FALLS 16. SKIERS SEEN WALKING PAST THROUGH OLYMPIC RINGS 17. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE SKIING NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JANUARY 21, 2026) (REUTERS – Access all) 18. (SOUNDBITE) (English) VIX PROTECTION FOUNDER, VICTOR WIACEK, ON HIS ACCIDENT, SAYING: "I think I was very fortunate that my story paired with, frankly, just a photo of my gruesome leg gash, was all the marketing that I needed to compel people to tell people that this is something that's really serious, this is something that can potentially kill you. The craziest thing is that in the world of ski racing, a more compelling argument for the fact that you need a piece of safety equipment is not that something can kill you, but rather that something can interfere with your ski career. As you might imagine, in the world of snow sports, the season’s already so short, and these athletes are so ridiculously committed that any three-day, one-week, God forbid, two-week interruption to the season is enough to absolutely throw you off your game and basically render you helpless for the entirety of a whole season." LIVIGNO, ITALY (RECENT – JANUARY 9, 2026) (REUTERS – Access all) 19. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE SKIING 20. WIDE OF PEOPLE SKIING, CABLE CARS GOING UP AND DOWN SLOPE STORY: Victor Wiacek brandishes a sharpened machete and drags it repeatedly across a thin layer of stretchy fabric on his forearm to demonstrate the material's cut-resistant qualities. The 27-year-old American has already sawed at the same extended arm, inserted into a pair of leggings, with a kitchen knife and a larger filleting blade without either implement leaving a mark. Wiacek, founder of underwear brand VIX Protection, lost half the blood in his body and nearly died in a horrific ski accident while racing for his college in 2019. He is…
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