Alpine Skiingthe interview
Swiss Ski
The former world champion and president of Swiss Ski will challenge Johan Eliasch and Mats Arjes in the race for Kasper's succession. At the "Blick" he told his vision for the World Cup. "Combined and parallel are needed, I'll explain why".
Tuesday 30 March 2021 6 minutes reading time
A couple of months and we will discover the success of Gian Franco Kasper, since 1998 at the helm of the FIS and who, in the next congress scheduled for the end of May, will officially leave his position as president as already announced for over a year (with "extension" from 2020 to 2021 due to pandemic).
I am the CEO of Head, Johan Eliasch (candidate from the British federation), the Swedish Mats Arjes, number 1 of the Olympic committee of the Scandinavian country and in the FIS council for about ten years (in addition to being former president of the Swedish federation) , and the president of Swiss-Ski, Urs Lehmann, the three candidates for a turning point that will be historic. And the former downhill world champion spoke of his ideas regarding the changes that would affect the Ski World Cup, on the columns of the “Blick”, in the interview granted to Mathias Germann.
Lehmann first of all spoke of the discussed parallels, going a little against the tide with respect to the general thought of fans. There is a very specific explanation, however, behind the analysis of the Swiss candidate. “Last winter there were only two high level events: in Lech it was a very good race, in Cortina the opposite and this race clearly showed its limits. In recent years, the format has not always been changed for the better, there were not enough tests before the debut at the World Cup. The problem is that there are no events at lower levels, such as in the European Cup and in FIS races, but it is important that in the World Cup there are enough parallel and combined events (Lehmann would like 4 per season for each specialty), making the tests captivating from the format to the choices of the slopes and their preparation.
The IOC distributes a lot of funds based on the number of disciplines and medals that will then be awarded at the Olympic Games, so if we eliminated parallels and combined, the FIS itself, national federations and organizers would receive less financial support. It wouldn't suit anyone, but they need to be improved, as mentioned ”.
There is also a lot of discussion about the calendar, with several athletes who complained about the discrepancy between fast races and technical tests, even if in the latter case it would be necessary to differentiate the speech between slalom and giant compared to downhill and super-g. Lehmann has clear ideas: “It is currently difficult for a pure sprinter to fight for the overall World Cup - he explains - We at Swiss-Ski presented a plan to make the calendar more balanced two years ago to the FIS working group: everyone agreed, but nothing has moved and I find it incomprehensible.
I believe that equality is needed between speed races and techniques: in a hypothesis of a calendar with 44 tests, I foresee four combined, four parallel and nine races for each of the classic disciplines ".
And we want to increase the appointments at night, in particular related to slalom. “A race that starts at 6.00pm and ends around 9.45pm can be seen by multiple viewers, especially if it takes place during the week. It is not for nothing that the Champions League matches start at 9pm instead of 1pm. Furthermore, they would allow to lighten the tight schedule with series matches on weekends ". Finally, the topic of accidents, on which Lehmann sees work to be done starting from afar, not so much on the materials or the current situation of the proposed slopes: "I believe prevention is important since adolescence, with Swiss-Ski we have always focused on this aspect".
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