The Audi FIS Alpine Word Cup soon under way
Photo: © Agence Zoom
The legendary Alpine resort Sölden in Austria is hosting the Audi FIS Alpine World Cup opening, as so many years before. The opening event will take place at the beautiful Tyrolean alpine scenery on October 17th to 18th. Because of the ongoing world-wide pandemic, preparing for the upcoming season has been different and challenging for all athletes as well as event organizers and the International Ski Federation, FIS. Still, all parties remain hopeful that by being disciplined with all health regulations and by being extra careful and thoughtful, it will be possible to run fascinating sports events while ensuring the safety and health of all participants. The highlight of the alpine season will be the 2021 Ski World Championships in Cortina, Italy.
Calendar changes
Some minor and also bigger changes have had to be made to race calendar to ensure everybody’s safety and to ensure the execution of the competitions. The rules and regulations provided by the national health authorities of each world cup organizing country have been taken into account when creating the puzzle. To limit interaction as much as possible, a number of events are separated to have only womens’ or mens’ races. For example, the World Cup in Levi, Finland will this year host two women’s races instead of the traditional women’s and men’s race. Speed and technical events are also split where possible. There will be no competitions in the USA this season.
Minimum requirements to validate a World Cup event
FIS will evaluate ahead of time whether a World Cup event can take place. If at the time of the preliminary entry deadline (5 weeks prior to the event) at least 7 out of the top 10 nations from the Nations' Cup 2019/20 are allowed to travel to the organising nation, the event can be valid for the World Cup. In exceptional cases, the FIS Event Task Force Group will make the final decision.
Who will take the first crowns this year?
A year ago, in Sölden, we witnessed a surprise win at the women’s World Cup opening as the young New Zealander Alice Robinson took her first win before the favorite Mikaela Shiffrin. On men’s side it was French dominance with Alexis Pinturault and Mathieu Faivre taking the top 2 positions. Who will it be this year - Italians? Austrians? Norwegians? Suisse? Germans? Stay tuned at https://www.fis-ski.com/en/alpine-skiing
Halti and FIS - 12 years of cooperation
Halti and the International Ski Federation FIS will start already the twelfth consecutive season together. The cooperation started in 2008 with Alpine disciplines and today Halti supplies clothing for the FIS staff in Alpine skiing, Cross-Country skiing, Ski Jumping, Nordic Combined, Freestyle Skiing, and Snowboarding. Halti provides high level, technical and functional outfits to FIS technical staff, officials, FIS Council and the office staff. The clothing is FIS branded and meets the specific needs of each role in the FIS. The visibility and brand awareness that comes along with the partnership is highly important in the road of Halti’s global growth.
More information at https://www.fis-ski.com/en
