Ski President on 2012 Season, Sochi Test Events, Winter YOG, Freestyle Tragedies

(ATR) International Ski Federation president Gian-Franco Kasper tells Around the Ringshe was generally satisfied with the outcomes across all disciplines this winter but that the deaths of two Canadian freestyle skiers cast a dark shadow over the season.

"We had a relatively good competitive season although we had some problems with lack of snow particularly in the Alps in the beginning with the alpine events and then in January we had too much snow and also had some postponements and cancellations," says Kasper,who is serving his 14th year as FIS president.

"But in the end we were relatively happy with the competitive part of the season."

However, Kasper notes that the financial crisis continues to have repercussions on the recreational aspects of snow sports, which he says are intrinsically linked to competitive aspects.

"The touristic part of skiing was not really good in spite of the snow. Skiing is getting too expensive with lift tickets and equipment that in the long range also has an effect on the competitive part," he says.

"A federation like FIS with its competitions is more or less an instrument or public relations tool for winter tourism."

Freestyle Tragedies

On March 10 in Grindelwald, Switzerland, Canadian Nik Zoricic died of injuries suffered from a crash into the safety netting near the side of the course approaching the finish at a World Cup skicross event. The 29-year-old received immediate medical care while lying motionless, and despite the best efforts of a Swiss emergency response team, died in a Geneva hospital of severe neurotrama.

Zoricic’s death was the second tragedy in freestyle skiing in two months. In January, fellow Canadian Sarah Burke died nine days after crashing during halfpipe training at Utah’s Park City Mountain Resort.

"We are aware that these are sports with a certain risk and our own people and own committee will discuss this very much in detail," Kasper tells ATR. "We are sensible to find safer solutions if we go into every detail to see if we can find something, but we can never exclude accidents in our sport."

Skicross made its debut at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics while ski halfpipe will be contested at the Games for the first time in Sochi 2014.

"In principle, there isn’t much difference between an accident in downhill or ski cross. Athletes take full risk. It's not good for skicross that we start more or less with such an accident," he says.

"It was shocking for all of us, but looking at the accident on video many times, I had the feeling that it's almost impossible to avoid such a fall," he adds, referring to Zoricic’s fatal accident.

"There are inherent risks in everything," Canadian Freestyle CEO Peter Judge said in a statement before Burke's death. "Certainly, freestyle skiing has one of the greatest safety records of almost any sport. Freestyle is a very safe sport in large part because we had to build a safe sport in order to get into the Olympics."

Vonn, Hirscher Win Alpine Titles

Lindsey Vonn continued to write her name in ski racing’s record books. The American superstar cruised to her fourth career overall World Cup title, also claiming crystal globes in the downhill, super-G and super combined disciplines.

With 12 victories, Vonn scored 1,980 points, 10 more than the previous women's record held by four-time Olympic gold medalist Janica Kostelic of Croatia. Vonn came just short of Hermann Maier’s all-time mark of 2,000.

On the men’s side, Marcel Hirscher, 23, outdueled Switzerland’s Beat Feuz at the World Cup finals in Schladming, Austria earlier this month to claim Austria’s first overall title since Benjamin Raich won in 2006.

Schladming, home to next season’s world championships, was also the setting for the final races of Olympic veterans Anja Paerson of Sweden and Didier Cuche of Switzerland, both of whom announced their retirements this season.

Sochi Test Events

One of the highlights on the ski calendar was consecutive weekends of Olympic test events held at Sochi’s Rosa Khutor Alpine Center, venue for the 2014 Games. Both men and women competed on the future Olympic downhill courses.

"The setup of this hill is good, the jumps are awesome," five-time Olympic medalist Bode Miller said at the time about the 3,500-meter downhill track. "They’re huge as you can see, but they have good steep landings and straight takeoffs, so I think it sets up for a great natural downhill."

"The organizers did a great job and we were surprised how well it worked," Kasper tells ATRabout the races. "Logistically, there are still some things to improve. The men’s downhill was excellent; with the ladies we had some weather problems but nothing too bad."

Kasper noted that an additional alpine test event, specifically in the technical disciplines of giant slalom and slalom, is still necessary for next season.

"We have planned to have the finals of the European Cup, but at the moment we have information that the Russians don’t want to hold these and we don’t know why," said the FIS leader.

"Now we have to see the outcome with the Russian Ski Federation,effectively the Sochi Organizing Committee," he said. "We will insist that these Europa Cups are carried out."

Winter Youth Olympic Games

More than 1,000 athletes from 70 nations participated in the inaugural Winter Youth Olympic Games held from January 13 to 22 in the 1964 and 1976 Olympic host city of Innsbruck.

"Everyone in Innsbruck was really satisfied with the success," says Kasper, who served as chairman of the IOC Coordination Commission. "We also had a few nations on the podium that you don’t often see."

An integral part of the Games in the Tyrolean capital was the Culture and Education Program, offering a variety of multi-cultural events and classes for the young athletes to take part in.

"The idea of these Youth Olympic Games is the combination of sport and education," emphasizes Kasper.

"It’s logical that we as sports federations and the National Olympic Committees generally look at the medal results more than anything, but the results for the Olympic spirit and development of the Olympic Movement is something that also has to be looked at in the future."

Bjoergen, Cologna Capture Cross-Country Titles

In cross-country skiing, Norway’s Marit Bjoergen and Switzerland’s Dario Cologna both won their third career overall World Cup titles and were awarded the large crystal globes at finals in Falun, Sweden from March 16 to 18.

Anders Bardal soared to Norway’s first overall title in men’s ski jumping since 1994 Olympic gold medalist Espen Bredesen accomplished the feat 18 years ago.

Ladies Ski Jumping Builds Toward Sochi

Taking flight in Lillehammer in early December, 15 competitions comprised the inaugural ladies World Cup ski jumping season.

USA's Sarah Hendrickson, 17, won nine events to easily claim the first-ever World Cup title, also establishing herself as the early favorite for the sport’s Olympic debut in Sochi 2014.

"We are happy with the first season, but we still lack the number of nations that we’d like to see," says Kasper. "The number of top athletes, which is around 30, is still relatively small but we realize the growth will take a few years."

48th International Ski Congress

The next important event on the FIS calendar is the 48th International Ski Congress to be held from May 27 to June 2 in Kangwonland, Korea.

According to Kasper, more than 1,000 participants are expected to attend.

Written by Brian Pinelli.