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What emerged today from the meeting in Thun, with the International Federation confirming its intention to organise the world championships for its disciplines every year, except naturally in Olympic years (as the IBU does in biathlon, among others), has already set the "rumours" flying about the possibility of heading across the Atlantic for alpine skiing, 13 years after Vail Beaver Creek 2015, before the unprecedented Narvik and the return to Val Gardena in 2031. Time is tight, so much so that the project could start directly in 2032, while snowboard and freestyle will have Montafon in 2027, and ski jumping, cross-country skiing and Nordic combined will follow the Falun, Lahti and Oberstdorf sequence.
Thursday 3 September 6 minutes reading time
FIS has officially given shape to the idea of holding its disciplines' world championships every year, therefore also in even-numbered years, except during the Olympic winter (in 2030 in the French Alps and in 2034 in Salt Lake City).
The “green light” was officially given today with the release of the statement following the Council meetings in Thun, but it has not yet been decided whether it will be possible to organise a World Championships as early as 2028, or whether it will start in 2032, 12 months after the World Championships return to Val Gardena, 61 years after the first and only time there, in alpine skiing.
Before then, there will be Crans-Montana in February 2027, 40 years after Switzerland’s historic all-conquering edition in 1987, and Norway’s historic debut with Narvik 2029, 77 years after the Oslo Games, which did indeed award world championship medals, but were, of course, an Olympic event.
The first rumours are already circulating and, according to what we have gathered, the most concrete possibility for a World Ski Championships as early as 2028 would be a return to the States: it would make sense, but not necessarily to Vail/Beaver Creek after the 1989, 1999 and 2015 editions, given that there are many resorts capable of organising such an event and, furthermore, Lake Placid will host the junior World Championships in 2027 after having staged two Olympics, not to mention the World Cup Finals in 2025 and again next March at Sun Valley.
Those held 11 and a half years ago were the last World Championships outside Europe (bearing in mind that Canada, for example, has never hosted them), followed by Sankt Moritz, Åre, Cortina, Courchevel Méribel and then Saalbach, before the next edition in Crans-Montana. The leading nations of the white circus, from Italy to France and Austria and Switzerland, followed by Norway with Narvik and, ten years after Cortina, Italy again with Val Gardena, would find it difficult to bid, but everything remains open.
Asia would be complicated, given that the top circuit put trips to Korea, China and Japan on the back burner some time ago (with the PyeongChang 2018 and Beijing 2022 Games taking place in the meantime), while Japan last hosted the World Championships in 1993 in Morioka.
FIS will now also have to assess, for the snowboard and freestyle disciplines, whether the 2028 option is possible after the Montafon event in March 2027; today, moreover, the junior World Championships in the alpine disciplines were officially awarded to the Korean slopes of Phoenix Park (13–15 February 2027), while the park&pipe event will be held at Secret Garden in China, which has already hosted various World Cup events, from 14 to 27 February 2027.
And what about ski jumping, Nordic combined and cross-country skiing? The Nordic World Ski Championships have already been assigned through 2031, as is the case for alpine skiing, with the latest official announcement this summer concerning 2031 and Oberstdorf, which will therefore follow Falun 2027, for the new event at the Swedish temple, and Lahti 2029. Planica, defeated by the German venue, would hardly have a chance for 2028 after hosting the World Championships in 2023, but in this case everything should still be far from settled, although behind the scenes at FIS, political and sporting work is certainly under way on the most concrete and feasible options.
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