Peter Gerdol tells us about the most discussed World Cup and looks ahead: "Parallel, combine ..."

The exclusive interview of NEVEITALIA to the chief race director of the women's sector. Many topics were addressed, from accidents to final cancellations, to regulatory changes.

Friday 20 March 2020 11 minutes reading time

He lived a very special first year, as the great head of the women's World Cup. Peter Gerdol had to deal with a very complicated season finale, from the lack of dispute of the La Thuile combined race to the Ofterschwang races which were blown due to lack of snow, but above all the Coronavirus alarm and the consequent cancellation of the last seven tests between Are and the finals of Cortina. No final show between Brignone, Shiffrin and Vlhova, but the Italian chief race director (born in Camporosso di Tarvisio, where he is also in these quarantine days) chosen last spring instead of Atle Skaardal, says he is satisfied with his first adventure in the maximum circuit, after having led the European Cup for 5 years. We contacted him to tell us his point of view on various topics, starting from the definitive stop arrived the night before the parallel slalom in Are, the moment in which the World Cup won by Federica Brignone ended. Gerdol, what feelings did you have in such a particular and in some ways dramatic season? It was his first year driving the World Cup and it happened ... everything. "I do not want to be influenced in the judgment by this unique ending in history, because until the end of February we experienced a season certainly difficult to manage, but positive considering that in the various race sites we found good conditions and a lot of snow, even too much on certain occasions as in Val d''IsÃ¨re or Rosa Khutor. We needed to react immediately to do all the races and we managed to recover with two triptychs in Bansko and Crans-Montana. I found what I expected after my experiences in the European Cup, then from La Thuile the priorities changed. " Before she had to manage slopes and organization, she had to speak to doctors and health authorities ... "And 'so, the comparison with the organizing committees and consequently with those responsible at the health level was necessary for the Coronavirus emergency. Not easy, but we adapted as long as you know what happened in Are: the rules of the game were clear, we had already established that in case of positivity or problems from that point of view, everything would stop. And so it was, there is little to complain about. " There are those who contested (Livio Magoni in primis, ed) the missed recoveries of the giant and the slalom of Ofterschwang, as well as the fact that the last ten scheduled races have been missed. Could other solutions be found? â€œOfterschwang had a plan to transport the snow with trucks, but two days before the snow check we had already realized that the heat, with negative forecasts, would not have allowed us to prepare a good track. Various proposals have arrived, we have examined all of them but there were no chances, given that in Germany there was no snow, in Switzerland and Austria the availability to compete, in Italy the Coronavirus problem that seemed almost limited to our country. Jasna? A speech that never existed, we did not receive any request from the Slovak federsci. That's all". There was also controversy over the Garmisch races, in particular with the super-g crashes in Rebensburg and Goggia. On the other hand, however, you put security ahead of everything by canceling races between Val d''IsÃ¨re and Rosa Khutor. How complicated was it to handle such different situations? â€œIt must be said that Kandahar is not a simple track and accidents have happened to important athletes, so it is clear that it has been talked about more. I would like to say, however, that despite the difficulties of that track, individual errors were made and even in the meetings following that Sunday, it was recognized that the best was done to protect the athletes. Trust me, I'm the first one that hurts a lot when we see certain injuries. " The new formula of the combined one, without the inversion after the heats of speed, has certainly maintained the technical values with the strongest players. On television, however, the interest can only drop with the result acquired after 4-5 athletes in the slalom heats ... â€œIt is true, it is the main problem and a theme that will be addressed in the next meetings to understand how to improve from this point of view, because it is clear that on this level the new rule does not work. From a sporting point of view, there are many good girls in both disciplines and therefore the values are those, with or without inversion ... ". The parallels, however, continue to be discussed. In Sestriere there was talk of a race decided by the draw of the track. â€œI believe that in this format it is improving. First of all, we have come to standardize the discipline, we are close to the ideal compromise. With the GPS track the paths are identical, the problem arises when the track can be damaged on some door. Double heats until the final? It is a topic to be discussed also with TV, because as you know the problem is not necessarily the overall duration of the race, but the "dead" times to manage ". What did you think of Federica Brignone's final triumph? â€œI believe that the validity of his victory cannot be discussed: having played 75% of the races is a good fact, unfortunately we were faced with a completely unpredictable situation. Out of the 30 races, Brignone scored more points than all the others: the absence of Shiffrin does not detract from the merits of Federica, who has been good in all disciplines as other athletes have not been able to ". Are you worried about the failure of the Cortina finals as a test event for the 2021 World Cup? "I would say no, because in Cortina they know how to work very well and will not have major problems in terms of technical management, given the accumulated experience and the many races played on a female level. We as FIS will make further inspections compared to those already planned, mostly because we have not had the opportunity to test the logistics of the event, the different arrival area, the awards, the transport ". Does your agenda at the time of the Coronavirus have many more blank pages? â€œWe have suspended the usual spring inspections, usually useful with the presence of snow. We will do it between summer and autumn, but we will make all the preparation meetings in conference call, starting from the next few weeks. Technology helps us and we will not stand still, at least compared to other sports we are lucky enough to be able to plan a new season, rather than having to end the current one ".

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