Nordic Skiingactuality
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Great disappointment for the IOC's decision not to include the discipline for girls in Milan-Cortina 2026. The opinion of the directors of Fiemme, who dreamed of home matches with Annika Sieff awaiting protagonist.
Saturday 9 July 2022 6 minutes reading time
The sporting history of Val di Fiemme and Trentino is intertwined with the world championships in Nordic skiing, the World Cups and now with those to come of the Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympics.
The Fiemme Ski World Cup committee, headed by Bruno Felicetti and the Ski Promotion committee chaired by Pietro De Godenz, already number 1 of the group that proposed the 2003 and 2013 World Championships, are already projected on the Olympic event, obviously without neglecting the appointments between now and 2026 regarding the World Cup, with the Tour de Ski running until 2028.
But there is a ... "but". Pietro De Godenz joined the vast chorus opposed to the recent choices of the IOC, which decided not to admit the women's Nordic combined to the 2026 Olympic Games. A real shame for Italian sport, now that the girls of the blue team, in particular the two Fiemme Annika Sieff and Veronica Gianmoena are emerging in the international arena and were aiming for their home Olympic appointment with targeted preparation. “The much vaunted gender equality - underlines Pietro De Godenz - fails at this juncture. The girls of the Nordic combined have already played in the World Cup, the World Championship and the EYOF.
The number of athletes is growing and so the 2026 goal was the logical goal, especially after the Lausanne Youth Olympics. We are absolutely not in agreement on this decision ”.
The exclusion of the female Nordic combined also affects the investment sustainability chapter. In order to adapt to current regulations, the Predazzo trampolines need expensive modernization works and in this sense the use of jumpers and combinatists was a logical consequence. The dreaded idea of removing the Nordic men's combo from the 2030 Games is really a low blow. The Nordic combined discipline became part of the Games with the 1924 edition of Chamonix. At the debut then there were 30 athletes from 9 nations, in the last edition of Beijing there were 55 athletes from 18 nations.
As for the women's Nordic combined, in the 2021 World Championship in Oberstdorf, in a year still conditioned by Covid, the girls competing were over 30 representing 10 nations. In short, all these observations point out that the decision to exclude the women's combined from the next Winter Olympics is an unexpected and harmful choice for many for the promotion of sport in the pink.
Val di Fiemme will try in the future to promote this discipline by setting up, in agreement with the FIS, international level events and also will try with all the might, even if it will not be easy at all, to get the IOC back on its decision, verifying with the president of CONI Malagò if there are any possible spaces. As the blue girls have already stated several times, we will try to spread this activity more and more by encouraging youth nurseries, and in Val di Fiemme the presence of the Predazzo Salto Stadium will certainly serve the purpose with also trampolines for young people, and of the Cross-country skiing center of Lago di Tesero with slopes suitable for all levels.
For the women's Nordic combined, the phenomenal driving force that is the Olympic Games will be missing, an appointment that has always been a stimulus for the younger generations. Meanwhile, the Cavalese committee headquarters are working on the 17th edition of the Tour de Ski, scheduled for three days from 6 to 8 January 2023.
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