International Ski Federation official cites “perfect” organization and “incredible” venues at Beijing 2022 Games

International Ski Federation (FIS) secretary general Michel Vion says he is extremely satisfied with the behind the scenes organization and operational execution of ski and snowboard events at five competition venues over the past two weeks in China.

“The organization was perfect and the venues were incredible in terms of logistics, there were 1,000 Chinese people working also with a lot of experts coming from Europe, as we call ITO’s – International Technician Officers,” Vion said, in an interview from Beijing on Saturday. “There were more than 140 for us from the different disciplines – guys coming to help and to be there to drive the Chinese.

“In terms of logistics, transportation, all the Olympic villages, it was perfect,” the French ski official added.

While event delays at the various mountain venues due to frequent gusty winds became commonplace and imposed challenges and headaches for FIS race and event directors, ultimately only a few events had to be postponed until another day.

It was a rough start to the Alpine events at the Chinese National Alpine Ski Center as the men’s downhill was postponed because of wind that gusted up to 40 mph at the top of the course, making for dangerous racing conditions. Fortunately, the showcase event went off as hoped for on the following day, February 7, an open day on the race calendar. Ski racers were satisfied with a fair and safe race.

The next nine Alpine events went off on the days as scheduled, despite continuing wind delays. The men’s giant slalom – involving 89 athletes from 62 countries – was pulled off despite unexpected substantial snowfall and limited visibility. The mixed team event scheduled for Saturday to close the Alpine program also had to be postponed until Sunday, due to more severe winds that blew apart finish area infrastructure and bent racing gates.

“For a two-week period, it was not that problematic,” Vion said. ”For all the Alpine competitions, men’s and women’s events, at the end it was a safe Olympics.”

“It was wind in China, but it could be heavy snow in St. Moritz or Cortina, or our (world championship) event in Meribel next year. Fortunately, not too many issues at the end,” Vion said, prior to the postponement of Saturday’s mixed team, with potentially similar wind issues forecast for Sunday and the closing ceremony to follow later that day.

Freestyle skiing, snowboard and Nordic events contested at lower elevations mostly went off as scheduled, although women’s freestyle aerials and slopestyle qualifications were pushed back due to unsafe winds.

Saturday’s men’s ski halfpipe was hampered by tough and windy conditions, while the men’s 50k marathon cross-country race was delayed and shortened to 30km due to freezing wind and frigid temperatures of -17 Celsius plus a wind chill factor that made the bitter cold even worse.

The FIS said the decision was made for safety reasons “to reduce the time of exposure of athletes in extreme conditions”. Not everyone was pleased though.

British skier Andrew Musgrave described the decision to shorten the course “because it’s a bit cold and windy” as a “joke” in a Twitter post.

Top notch, albeit not exceedingly difficult courses

The French FIS official and former French Ski Federation president said he was highly impressed with all of the Beijing 2022 ski and snowboard venues, while highlighting Genting Snow Park and Shougang Park for Big Air events, built on a former steel mill site, set against the backdrop of four industrial cooling towers and urban Beijing.

“We couldn’t have spectators around, but you can imagine it with 15,000 spectators, it could have been huge,” Vion said. “We will use this place in the future for sure – being in the center of Beijing, it’s the only place like it in the world.”

Vion admits not all the race courses and slopes were exceedingly difficult, including the ski and snowboard cross course at Genting Snow Park, but all were more than sufficient for Olympic competition.

“It was a big park with all the moguls, halfpipe, slopestyle and ski cross and this venue combined was enormous – I’ve never seen anything like this in my life,” Vion said.

“The ski cross was not too difficult, without too much speed – it’s always difficult when you set a course for both ski and snowboard, it’s never easy.

“I cannot say it was a tremendous course, but it was safe for the athletes – it was a good course for the Olympics and completely different than what we had in PyeongChang with too big jumps and at the end we had four or five athletes with broken legs in the hospital.”

Legacy of the Olympic venues

Vion said plans and expectations are to continue using the new Chinese winter sports venues, for future ski and snowboard World Cups and other international competitions.

“It is the intention of the FIS to use these facilities for sure,” Vion said. “The ski jumping hill has to be used, Genting Park also for the freestyle and the Alpine facilities also.

“We don’t wait too long to give China once again top World Cup competitions, it’s very clear,” Vion stated. “That was already our wish before the Games and even more now.”

He says FIS will overcome the significant distance from the majority of World Cup races contested in Europe and an already jam-packed winter calendar.

“Of course it’s far, of course we have the time difference, but we can organize that at facilities with flood lights,” Vion said, insinuating that competitions in Beijing could be carried out with daytime viewing across Europe.

“It would not be the right behavior to not use these facilities – we want to go to China and push them to be more involved in skiing.”

“We have to use these Olympic Games as a tool to help them improve and it’s not so easy because the calendar is not so flexible, but to do this we have to give them some races next season already – that is clear.”

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