By Steven Nyman
(Taken from his blog with permission)

Wow! Don’t get me wrong with all of this and congrats to all of those who skied well in Val d’Isere but that hill (Stade Bellevarde) needs to go. … or change. The slalom race (Dec. 12) was so tough to watch with half of the field going out and the drastic difference in times from when the sun went down.

We saw this a year or two ago with Gauthier De Tessier who was one of a few racers who had the advantage of sun. Then it went black and nobody could match his time. Steve Messillier killed it, no doubt, but he, too, had sun and being able to see is such an advantage. They at least need to change when they are running the race so there isn’t the light disadvantage. Marcel Hirscher put on a show in slalom like Ted did a day earlier in the GS, but most of the racers in between were tough to watch. Simply put, what occured probably won’t create many ski racing fans.

The reason I think FIS keeps racing on this hill is because the finish is in town and the crowd is a good one. But when it comes to TV viewers, I imagine they aren’t that impressed. Where is the display of speed and power? The fluid motion of flowing down a course? It is missing here. It is tough to get excited when you see the best athletes in the world look like junior racers.

Here are my ideas to solve this problem. Make an exception for this hill. It is so steep you have to cram the required amount of gates in too short a space. The hill would be great if the course setters could make it flow more. But Val d’Isere is so steep that it is tough to set any other way. With today’s skiing technique and technology racers pick up speed fast and if the sets are changed to anything different competitors will most likely be going too fast for the slope.

Another, and perhaps better idea would be to run down the opposite side where the women ran for the 2009 World Champs. The finish is still in town and the hill has a ton of terrain on it. I thought it looked like a lot of fun if it was prepped properly.

Given this race, in my opinion, somethings got to change.
 
And again a big congrats to Ted and Marcel for showing everyone how it is done.

For more from Steven Nyman go to: https:nymansworld.blogspot.com
Gepa photo