Val Gardena Ski Race Overcomes Lack of Snow -- On the Scene

(ATR) Race organizers in Val Gardena, Italy overcame a lack of natural snow and mild temperatures over recent weeks to successfully stage men’s world cup alpine races Friday and Saturday in the Italian Dolomites resort.

With night temperatures falling below freezing last week, the Val Gardena race crew utilized 65 snow guns to blast 80,000 cubic meters of artificial snow along the 3.5-kilometer Saslong course.

"Compliments to Gardena for pulling this off," said U.S. skier Steven Nyman, winner of Friday’s downhill. "It’s a miracle that it happened. They didn’t have a lot of snow to work with and it turned out great."

Organizers decided to cancel a second training run on Thursday to preserve the course, which still lacked proper snow cover. In another measure, the super-G and downhill races on Friday and Saturday were flip-flopped from the original schedule.

"We arrived here on Tuesday and it was raining," said Sochi Olympic downhill gold medalist Matthias Mayer. "It was amazing that we had two perfect races so compliments to the organizers."

Following Nyman’s victory on Friday, Norwegian Kjetil Jansrud won Saturday’s super-G. Jansrud, an ambassador for the Lillehammer 2016 Youth Olympic Games, increased his lead in the overall world cup standings.

Three-time overall world cup champion Marcel Hirscher of Austrian won a giant slalom in nearby Alta Badia on Sunday trimming the gap on Jansrud.

Unlike Val Gardena, other World Cup locations have not fared as well.

It was announced Friday that the annual January 1st parallel slalom city event in Munich, Germany has been cancelled due to unfavorable weather conditions.

On Sunday, FIS moved two women’s alpine races in Austria from Semmering to Kuehtai because of a lack of snow.

Ski cross races in Innichen, Italy also were cancelled this past weekend. It was the second consecutive stop in which races in the freestyle skiing discipline were wiped off the schedule as an event in Val Thorens, France had to been postponed until January 8-10.

"It’s not the first time – we had it even worse a few years ago," said FIS president Kasper about the uncooperative weather. "On the level of world cup, it’s not so bad [for FIS] because the races have just been postponed or moved."

"We feel it through our organizers on the logistical level because they are losing a lot of money and the same goes for the whole ski industry," Kasper said.

"It’s not just the lack of snow. It’s the mild temperatures and the forecast is not the best until the beginning of January."

Earlier this month, mens’ and womens’ alpine races in Val d’Isere and Courchevel, France, Dec. 13-14, also had to be cancelled. Åre, Sweden – the 2019 World Alpine Ski Championship host and a regular world cup venue – stepped in on short notice and successfully hosted technical races for both genders.

Upcoming slalom races in Zagreb, Croatia also appear to be in jeopardy.

Aerialists Take Flight in Beijing

Freestyle skiing aerialists flipped and twisted inside an unlikely venue as a world cup event took place inside Beijing’s Bird’s Nest stadium on Saturday and Sunday evening.

It marked the second successive season that Beijing’s 2008 Olympic stadium has been utilized as a freestyle aerials mecca with action taking place under the lights. Over recent weeks, the grass field was replaced by a massive, regulation-size aerials venue, constructed of scaffolding and snow.

Chinese aerialists completed a weekend sweep of mens’, womens’ and first-of-its-kind mixed gender team competitions. However, attendance in the stadium fell well below expectations of 10,000 spectators.

The freestyle skiing world cup was the first of six major international winter sports competitions scheduled in China this winter. The Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games bid committee is striving to further promote winter sport and spread Olympic values in its quest to win the Games over Almaty, Kazakhstan.

"The Chinese are doing almost everything at the moment for 2022," Kasper said. "They are working extremely hard and are everywhere with their top people at every meeting."

"For example, the mayor of Beijing, who is quite a personality in China, was in Monaco for the whole period," Kasper said referring to the recent IOC Session.

Still to come as part of the Beijing 2022 "Six Events" program are an air & style event, the women’s world curling championship, a short track speedskating world cup and the Grand Prix of Figure Skating to be held in Shanghai.

The final major competition of the winter is the World Figure Skating Championships, also in Shanghai, March 23-29.

Written by Brian Pinelliin Val Gardena, Italy

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