There were nine race cancellations in the current World Cup season. This means that almost half of the previously planned ski races have been canceled – a situation that is reminiscent of last winter.
In bright sunshine, Lara Gut-Behrami pushed herself out of the start house on the Rettenbachferner on October 28th. She opened the 2023/24 ski season as the first runner in the giant slalom. At the time it looked as if this season would start better than the last. There was already enough snow, the sun was shining, the conditions were right. But what followed in the weeks that followed was more of a… Déjà-vu.
The World Cup is not getting going
One rejection followed another. The men’s giant slalom in Sölden had to be canceled. Once again no races in Zermatt for either women or men, no speed races Beaver Creek. The parallels to last winter are clear. At that time, the women’s start had to be canceled, the Matterhorn races fell victim to the weather, the parallel competition in Lech/Zürs could not take place due to a lack of snow and also in Lake Louise and Beaver Creek there were race cancellations. Only one of the first eight races of the season took place as planned.
Shorter Glimmer of hope
After the first downhill run of the season in St. Moritz and the first men’s giant slalom in Val d’Isère Last weekend, the 2023/24 World Cup finally seemed to get going. But then there was another wave of cancellations: no Super-G possible in Switzerland and no slalom either Val d’Isère.
This means that the Ski World Cup has already recorded nine race cancellations and one race cancellation this winter. Only eleven races actually took place. According to sports show expert Felix Neureuther, at least the recent cancellation among the technology drivers in France could have been prevented: “It rained heavily yesterday and the slopes were soft. I think that perhaps a few things should have been done differently beforehand. Then you could definitely have driven today.“
Helpers gave everything, but it was still not possible to drive in St. Moritz.
Maier lacks foresight
DSV Alpine Director Wolfgang Maier and the head coaches of the other nations also saw errors in the preparation of the slopes: “I was in a meeting with the other head coaches and they also complained that they weren’t handling this surface carefully enough.“According to Maier, a race cancellation could have been prevented this time:”The fact is that you would actually have had to shovel the slope by hand, then you wouldn’t have destroyed the surface. In the end, like this winter, it is very often a chain of really unfortunate factors or a lack of foresight about what could come.“
Last winter the season went almost smoothly from December onwards. Only a few cancellations followed, such as the World Cup in Garmisch in January, but the majority of events were able to take place as planned. That would also be good for the current ski season.