The coming World Cup season will be even more complicated, predicts the South Tyrolean, who is hoping for an end to the ghost races.
The sun was high above Val Gardena. Not a single cloud disturbed the postcard idyll on this kitschy summer day, even the mighty Sassolungo (3,181 meters) was unable to submerge the scenery in the shade.
It wasn't really the right conditions to talk about skiing, and yet there was no other topic of conversation at the Saslonch hut not far from the start of the legendary Saslong run: On the one hand, the Norwegian Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, who won the Super last winter -G and the downhill run was honored as the winner of the Dolomites Val Gardena Südtirol Ski Trophy, the committed Val Gardena around Saslong President Rainer Senoner once again confirmed their candidacy for the 2029 World Cup.
Aleksander Aamodt Kilde received his wooden likeness as the winner of the Dolomites Val Gardene Südtirol Ski Trophy
And finally, FIS race director Markus Waldner also took time to look back on the 2020/21 Corona season and look ahead to the World Cup winter, which will start in Sölden in 71 days. So the South Tyrolean spoke about …
- Lessons from last winter
“Nobody would have thought that we would get through the season so smoothly. We were all a bit surprised. The first race of the season was in truth decisive. Sölden and the ÖSV had a concept that they had adopted from Formula 1 in Spielfeld – and the other organizers have orientated themselves on that. Of course it was very time-consuming for the runners and teams, it was annoying and complicated for everyone with the constant testing. But it was also the only way to get to the World Cup in Cortina. Everyone was extremely flexible, that will continue to be in demand. ”
FIS Race Director Markus Waldner is already looking ahead to the new season
- The next world cup season
“It's not going to be a normal winter again. You can see everywhere that the numbers are rising again, so there will be infections. We have to live with that. I think it will be even more complicated than last winter. “
- New challenges
“Last winter we were alone everywhere. During the races, the locations only opened the lifts and hotels for us. At least with the exception of Switzerland – and that's where we had the problems. This year we will have to live together with tourism because there will be no more lockdown. Luckily. Because we couldn't survive two winters like this. “
- A possible vaccination requirement for the runners
“There can be no compulsory vaccination for athletes, that would be an encroachment on human rights. But of course, countries can ask for a vaccination when entering the country, just like China, for example, does. That then becomes problematic. “
- Ghost races
“I think these ghost races are history. Luckily, skiing is very TV-friendly, you never really saw on TV that there were never any viewers there last winter. The TV directors did it very well. This year we are again planning a limited number of visitors for most of the events. Of course it won't be 40,000 in Kitzbühel as it used to be, but I can imagine up to 10,000 visitors with all the measures. The VIP packages are also important, the organizers have to offer the sponsors something – otherwise we will run out of money. “
