Q&A: Austrian ski prez Peter Schroecksnadel

Peter Schroecksnadel might be the most powerful person in the sport of alpine skiing. As president of the Austrian ski federation, a member of the FIS Council, the manager of several top skiers and owner of ski resorts around Austria, he swings a big stick. This year he is on a special FIS working group charged with examining the alpine World Cup calendar and finding a way to reform it. Also on the working group are his counterparts at the American, French and Norwegian teams.
    Ski Racing interviewed Schroecksnadel recently and got his opinion on what he feels needs to change in the sport logistically to make it more appealing to fans worldwide.
PETER SCHROECKSNADEL might be the most powerful person in the sport of alpine skiing. As president of the Austrian ski federation, a member of the FIS Council, the manager of several top skiers and owner of ski resorts around Austria, he swings a big stick. This year he is on a special FIS working group charged with examining the alpine World Cup calendar and finding a way to reform it. Also on the working group are his counterparts at the American, French and Norwegian teams.
    Ski Racing interviewed Schroecksnadel recently and got his opinion on what he feels needs to change in the sport logistically to make it more appealing to fans worldwide.

Ski Racing: Earlier this season you faced a little criticism on this side of the ocean for not endorsing the idea of extending the World Cup’s stay in Colorado, where there was great snow, and then maneuvering it to Austria, where the snow was bad.
Peter Schroecksnadel: It’s good to have the races in Europe. If we have the races in the U.S. and Canada, there’s no coverage on the TV stations because it’s prime time in the evening. In skiing at the moment, it’s still a problem with night races. It’s the same problem with Schladming. And it’s important for Europe to show that we have snow.

SR: You also told us at the time that you were opposed to having the Vail Valley Foundation adopt and host the races in Beaver Creek.
PS: I’m completely opposed to having six to eight races in Vail; four races is enough. You need time to promote it, to celebrate victory and be angry about the losses. You need to have the emotions. If there’s no time between races, you lose the audience. If every day is a race, it’s like World Championships. But that’s different. There are medals.

SR: But in late January, there are four races clustered around Kitzbühel (three races) and Schladming (one race).
PS: We don’t want a fourth race at Kitzbühel. It’s better to have one event with 50,000 people. I only want to have more races a week. We don’t want to have four races in a row in one place. It’s easy for race directors, TV and journalists, but it’s not good for racers and not good for the audience. It’s overkill then.

SR: What recommendations are you pushing for within the FIS working group?
PS: It’s stupid to not allow glacier races during the season. There’s no reason. They say it’s so we don’t have races above the tree line, but the tree line is in different places all over Europe. The altitude at the finish line in Beaver Creek is the same as the start of the glacier race in Sölden. It doesn’t have anything to do with the glacier. The glacier rule is that all the races have to go down to the valley, but this rule is not kept anyway, because if you go to St. Moritz, the finish is not in the village. Or in Beaver Creek.

SR: What other reforms does the sport need?
PS: Maybe there is a marketing problem. … It’s my opinion that we have to think in a completely new way. The marketing in FIS is the main problem. Where was the marketing department when there were problems in America with not enough snow in Europe? There was nobody.

SR: Everybody says the World Cup needs to be simplified, but then everyone campaigns to have more races in their country. How do we get around this?
PS: This is true. Everybody wants to have races. Maybe you could make rules about audience, that a race has to have stations broadcasting. In Austria now we have about 10 or 11 races. If we gave them up, there would be six races somewhere but no transmission. If you watch Austria, except for Sölden we don’t have any races before Christmas, and that’s the best time.  

SR: Can you tell us anything more specific about the reforms you want this working group to recommend?
PS: I don’t want to discuss this yet. We will discuss it in the group. If I give you an idea, it’s dead again. As soon as I say it, everybody thinks it comes from the Austrians, and we only want to have it for the team. That’s wrong. I want it for skiing.