Skaardal, Hujara assess ups, downs of WC season

Atle Skaardal and Guenter Hujara, the FIS Chief Alpine World Cup Race Directors for women and men, recently shared some of their observations of this past season. They touched on the successes and challenges of the season, including the emergence of new men’s racers on the podium, continued questions about safety and the addition of a couple new venues on next season’s schedule.
Atle Skaardal and Guenter Hujara, the FIS Chief Alpine World Cup Race Directors for women and men, recently shared some of their observations of this past season. They touched on the successes and challenges of the season, including the emergence of new men’s racers on the podium, continued questions about safety and the addition of a couple new venues on next season’s schedule.

Atle Skaardal
"On the whole, we had quite a good season on the ladies side. There was enough snow at our venues and at times, it felt like we had the good ol’ winter back with tons of snow. From the sports perspective, it was an exciting season, too. It was not quite as tight as last year although the fight for the overall World Cup title remained close until the Finals. Mostly, it was the well-known names on the top without big surprises, with the exception of young Swiss Lara Gut making her first podium in St. Moritz.
    "In terms of the new equipment rules introduced for this season, I expect them to have a positive impact in the long run. It was a big change for the industry and it will take time for their effect to be fully seen. I think we are moving in the right direction but we need to realize that this is all part of a continued development process. In many cases, such as injuries, many variables are at play, not only the equipment. It is the same for safety. Overall, our measures are at a very high level and where there is room for improvement, continued work is being done. We have already made significant progress in the past 10 to 15 years; there is no comparison between what we had in 1990 and now. At the same time, we cannot even begin to think what types of safety standards we will have in another 10 to 15 years. This, too, is a step-by-step process.
    "Next season will be the first season that we will be implementing the schedule changes that we have been anticipating for two years now. The calendar will include fewer World Cup races for both men and ladies. This will indicate a new direction for us, with increased focus on quality rather than quantity.
    "This season’s calendar included quite a few weekends with the ladies and men together. These joint events are good and we will probably have 3 to 4 of those in the future as well, but not more. This year, both of the returning organizers — Panorama and Crans-Montana — did a great job and next year we will again welcome two new organizers, La Molina, Spain, and Bansko, Bulgaria. At the same time, we will also continue to support the further development of the ladies’ classical sites: Cortina, St. Moritz, Val d’Isère and Zagreb, just to mention a few."

Guenter Hujara
"On the sports side, this season saw, as expected, the established racers being challenged by many new names. We had many different and many new winners. We also saw several racers making great progress through the super combined to do well in the special events, such as Ivica Kostelic in the downhill.
    "From an organizational perspective, the season was very challenging. We had enough snow but the rapid weather changes also made it very difficult to work and this season really showed what extreme efforts are required to prepare the courses for the World Cup races. The positive news is that we set new records at several sites, such as Adelboden and Schladming for spectators, and at many others such as Wengen and Val Gardena for TV. The highlight of the season in the technical events was the first-ever men’s slalom in Zagreb, Croatia.
    "We also saw relatively many injuries, especially early in the season. Later, we may have seen fewer of them but unfortunately some very dramatic ones. We are constantly working on improving the safety of the racers. These efforts may not always be transparent to all since speed and safety are often the two sides of the same coin. Despite some spectacular crashes, we can say that the speed events — downhill and super-G — have been developing well. The current requirements in the World Cup are extremely high and the top racers do meet these requirements. Of course, the continued development of the World Cup also increases the demands for the other racing levels such as the Continental Cups and below.
    "Our future challenge will be to continue to offer great events and sports competitions at their best. There will be some good ideas coming out from the Alpine World Cup optimization project, especially to better promote the events and our sport. But there are probably some additional opportunities to further target and improve the management and marketing of the World Cup from a holistic perspective. Clearly we still can do it better."