2013 delegations sweat out the final hours

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – With the final FIS council vote 24 hours off, it is crunch time for the four alpine World Championships bid candidates.
    Four major resorts are vying for the 2013 event, which will be awarded on the basis of a vote by the 17-member FIS council here on Thursday afternoon.
    Contending for the honor are the United States with Beaver Creek/Vail, Austria with Schladming, Italy with Cortina d’Ampezzo and Switzerland with St. Moritz.
    Who’s going to win is anyone’s guess and while rumors run rampant, conventional wisdom indicates that the race is between Schladming and Beaver Creek/Vail.
    “You just don’t know how you are doing,” bemoans Greg Johnson, a member of the Colorado resort bid team and chief of race at the annual Birds of Prey event.
    The Vail Valley Foundation Web site (vvf.org) will stream the Council’s vote live from South Africa beginning at 12:30 p.m. ET on Thursday.
CAPE TOWN, South Africa – With the final FIS council vote 24 hours off, it is crunch time for the four alpine World Championship bid candidates.
    Four major resorts are vying for the 2013 event, which will be awarded on the basis of a vote by the 17-member FIS council here on Thursday afternoon.
    Contending for the honor are the United States with Beaver Creek/Vail, Austria with Schladming, Italy with Cortina d’Ampezzo and Switzerland with St. Moritz.
    Who’s going to win is anyone’s guess and while rumors run rampant, conventional wisdom indicates that the race is between Schladming and Beaver Creek/Vail.
    “You just don’t know how you are doing,” bemoans Greg Johnson, a member of the Colorado resort bid team and chief of race at the annual Birds of Prey event. “We found that out in Miami when we thought we had enough votes and wound up with three or four.” Beaver Creek/Vail’s bid for the 2009 Championships failed in Miami as Val d’Isere took the honors.
    This year’s Beaver Creek/Vail bid is in sharp contrast to the failed effort in Miami.
    “We learned we have to be humble," said Ceil Folz, who heads the bid effort and is president of the Vail Valley Foundation, which will run the Championships if the bid is successful.
    Folz muses about U.S. chances for victory. She feels the bid is competitive but doesn’t know if it will be enough. “Some associations have an influence on their council member,” she said. “Others have no influence on what their council member does.”
    Schladming, considered the frontrunner, last held the World Championships in 1982. In the heart of ski mad Austria, the resort annually holds one of the best attended events on the alpine World Cup circuit and is easily accessible to fans, a factor that will not be overlooked by the FIS council.
    While St. Moritz is considered to be a long shot, the glitzy resort has mounted a strong bid. Fresh of its highly successful 2003 World Championships, St. Moritz is rumored to be looking more at the 2015 Games.
    Italy’s Cortina d’Ampezzo, which hosts the premiere women’s downhill on the women’s circuit, is thought to be a long shot. The resort has not held a major event since the 1956 Olympic Winter Games.