Val d’Isere is set to welcome the world

Preparations for the 2009 FIS World Championships in Val d’Isere, France are ramping up. Organizers are setting the stage to welcome competitors from 67 nations—breaking the record set by Are, Sweden of 62 nations at an Alpine World Cup event.Preparations for the 2009 FIS World Championships in Val d’Isere, France are ramping up. Organizers are setting the stage to welcome competitors from 67 nations—breaking the record set by Are, Sweden of 62 nations at an Alpine World Cup event. Past notable participants at the February contest include Brazil and Mongolia. Although it is too early to tell which outside-the-box countries will make the trip to the remote Alps hill this year, organizers are sure a cornucopia of global competitors will add diversity and interest to the gathering.     

Last week, Val d’Isere mayor Marc Bauer received the keys to a new, on-site sports center. The building will serve as the World Ski Championship Press Center during races. GFC, a French construction firm, built the center in just six months, hitting their target with only one day to spare. The keys were then passed off to Jean Luc Fabre, the Director General of the organizing committee, which will move into the building in about two weeks.  Organizers now have the responsibility of turning the 3800m² center into a media center for 1500 reporters from 80 countries. Television coverage of the races will be broadcast by up to 30 television stations.

“We wanted to build a place where the press can work and feel as comfortable as possible,” Patrick Lang, Chief of Press for the 2009 World Championships says.   

Set in the heart of the village, the press center includes a restaurant, relaxation lounge and swimming pools, which will be covered to make room for reporters during the World Cup proceedings. The facility will provide the press quick access to the excitement, situated only five minutes on foot from the women’s finish line and two minutes from the men’s finish line.

Budget-conscious, would-be spectators have been visiting www.valdisere2009.org in droves, requesting free race invitations and 1-euro transport vouchers. Last week the tally of invitation requests on the website reached 100,000. Early predictions set the attendance at over 200,000 during the two-week event, giving the Nordic World Championships, which have been known to attract 120,000 a day, a run for their money.

Snow forecasts for the area, which is known for being very dry early in the season, are also optimistic; the white stuff has been falling at 4,000 feet in the Alps and a large storm is predicted to hit late this month.