Alpine Skiingworld Cup
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FISI and Swiss-Ski are continuing with the idea already launched for several months. The appointment would open the World Cup for the 2023/24 season, after the Soelden giant: all the details and also the women's race in a different weekend.
Thursday 13 May 2021 8 minutes reading time
“Speed Opening” goes on. And how, the project of the longest descent of the World Cup, in the shadow of the Matterhorn, seems to be able to go through thanks to the work of FISI and Swiss-Ski, which today officially announced the continuation of the works for this new great appointment that could already be held in Zermatt / Cervinia in the autumn of 2023.
A shared transnational project, which involves the Zermatt and Cervinia ski lifts; the idea of organizing World Cup races at the foot of the Matterhorn is not an absolute novelty, but compared to the past the project is now finally taking on concreteness. The work of the two Federations is continuing briskly: a first meeting has already been held between the representatives of FISI and Swiss-Ski and in recent days the two FIS race directors and Bernhard Russi visited the Matterhorn under the guidance of Didier Defago , who designed the track.
The races on the Matterhorn would be the first cross-border races in the history of the World Cup with the start and finish in different countries. The men's descent begins at Gobba di Rollin (3899 meters above sea level), in Switzerland, and the finish is at the Cime Banche Lakes, at an altitude of 2814 meters in Italy. It will be the descent that will take place at the highest altitude ever. The Théodule glacier ski area is, today, the only one to remain in operation all year round. In addition to the two Federations, the lifts of Cervino SpA and Zermatt Bergbahnen AG, the tourist and ski destinations Cervinia and Zermatt, the Valle d'Aosta Region and the canton of Valais are involved as key stakeholders in the "Cervino World Cup" as well as Valtournenche and Cervinia, for Italy, and Zermatt.
All strongly motivated to give their contribution so that this visionary idea can become reality. The program consists of working with representatives of these stakeholder groups in order to create a modern structure to organize this new event as part of the Alpine Ski World Cup. The plans of the project managers, under the guidance of FISI and Swiss-Ski, provide that the speed races for women and men at the foot of the Matterhorn must take place over two weekends in late October / early November, at best starting from 2023, as there are no World Cup races in that particular period, after the Soelden giants.
The President of the FISI Flavio Roda underlines: “It is not just a project of two countries, but an opportunity for the whole world of skiing. In addition, the project offers the great opportunity to organize an international opening of the Speed World Cup. Italian winter sports will do everything to do their part and make their contribution ”. “The races on the Matterhorn would bring numerous advantages for skiing. On the one hand, the gap between the start of the World Cup in Soelden and the first speed races could be shortened; on the other hand, speed athletes from all over the world would have the best training opportunities in the heart of the Alps in advance ”, adds Urs Lehmann, President of Swiss-Ski.
“Sharing this cross-border project with FISI and Swiss-Ski, Cervinia and Zermatt, for which we have worked together in recent months, makes us very proud. Bringing the World Cup to the Plateau Rosà is a challenge we wanted to take up. For us it is a great opportunity to collaborate with Switzerland and the two Federations and make our Region known to the general public. In the next few weeks we will continue the work to define the details of the sporting event and our involvement in the organizing committee ”, declared the Aosta Valley Councilors Luigi Bertschy and Jean-Pierre Guichardaz. “The two tourist destinations of Zermatt and Cervinia have shared a ski area for many years. This project brings us even closer; a sporting event of this magnitude is unique of its kind for both Italy and Switzerland.
It highlights how, thanks to close cross-border cooperation, new opportunities can be presented for the whole Matterhorn area ”, says Herbert Tovagliari, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Cervino SpA.
Franz Julen, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Zermatt Bergbahnen AG, emphasizes the region's snow guarantee: “There is no other place where speed races can be held so early in a World Cup season as in the skiable domain of the Matterhorn on the border between Italy and Switzerland. Furthermore, the necessary infrastructure for this already exists to a large extent, which would make the event exemplary in terms of sustainability ”. FISI and Swiss-Ski hope that the World Cup races for women and men in the skiable domain of the Matterhorn will be included in the FIS long-term calendar as soon as possible.
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