FIS proposes tweaked World Cup calendar; final approval expected Oct. 3

On Wednesday, the FIS Alpine World Cup preparation meeting in advance of the Technical Committees at the end of the month took place as a hybrid meeting both at the FIS headquarters in Oberhofen and with virtual participation. The meeting was chaired by chairman of the Alpine Committee Bernhard Russi, in addition to the FIS led by the Competition Management, Peter Gerdol and Markus Waldner, the ski industry SRS with Rudi Huber and the World Cup Organizers through Srecko Medven (SLO), President of Club 5.

As the main point on the agenda, the Audi FIS Alpine World Cup men’s and women’s calendars 2020-21 were reviewed in depth, after months of discussions between FIS, the national ski associations and local organizing committees as well as the rights-holders. 

The final calendars have been adapted to the current situation and measures. They include adaptations based on the requirements to reduce numbers and the costs for teams, organisers and stakeholders. Changes to the calendar include separating a number of events to have only womens’ or mens’ races as well as dividing speed and technical events to limit the number of participants in total. The measures taken all focus on protecting the health and welfare of the participants to the best extent possible.

One of the first events adapted in the calendar is Levi, Finland. This season the women’s tour will head to the Finnish venue for two slalom races on Nov. 21-22 with the men’s slalom rescheduled later in the season. 

Additionally Alta Badia’s (ITA) parallel race for the men has been replaced by a slalom. Adelboden (SUI) will host three races with an additional giant slalom on Friday, January 8. 

The women will be racing in St Moritz (SUI) with two super G races on Dec. 5-6, one week earlier than previously scheduled, followed by Courchevel (FRA) hosting a two-race technical weekend.

The calendar includes one parallel event per gender in Lech-Zürs (AUT) at the new FIS World Cup parallel opening. FIS, Swiss-Ski and the Davos Organizing Committee has decided to postpone the debut of the parallel on Jan. 1, 2021 to the following year. Since the competition will take place near the centre of Davos during the peak tourist season, it would have been challenging to conform to the COVID-19 specifications. 

Overall, the men’s calendar will feature 39 races, while the women will compete in 35 races. The Audi FIS Alpine World Cup men’s and women’s calendars for 2020-21 will be approved the FIS Council on Oct. 3 following the FIS Technical Meetings taking place from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2. 

Successful FIS alpine TV production workshop held in Kitzbühel

The traditional FIS Alpine TV Production workshop was held in Kitzbühel (AUT) on Friday, Sept. 10. 

The event was hosted by Kitzbühel Ski Club in the competition finish house with President Michael Huber welcoming all participants alongside the Austrian Ski Federation represented by Rupert Steger.

The nearby based broadcasters and rights-holders from Austrian, German and Swiss Television as well as Rights Holders EBU and Infront were on site with others following a live stream. 

The main topics centered around the need to adapt media and TV aspects to the organizational aspects that are planned in accordance with the national regulations, alongside the FIS COVID-19 guidelines, in order to safeguard the health of all participants. 

The FIS participants included Race Directors Peter Gerdol, Markus Waldner, Manu Couder and Jürg Capol contributed to defining the organization of the finish area with social distancing measures, the revised award ceremonies and the media workflow.

You can watch the full livestream here.

Release courtesy of FIS.