Snowboard World Championships will be held in Georgia for the first time. In Bakuriani, snowboarders and ski crossers fight for medals. The German snowboarders would also like to take at least three of them home with them. The team around sports director Andreas Scheid has set itself this goal. “If the athletes communicate these goals in this way, why shouldn’t I do the same as sports director?” Scheid said on Deutschlandfunk.
The team already wanted to win medals at the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing last year, but ultimately came home empty-handed. “That was a blow for us,” said Scheid. “In the end it was nothing but experience. But we’ve already tweaked one or two screws. We want to do better now.”
Ramona Hofmeister in good form
The chances are good because in Georgia there are many more possibilities to win a medal with 30 decisions. In addition, medal hope Ramona Hofmeister is in good form. “She has now won the World Cup in Canada and there are still two or three podium finishes to her name. She is definitely capable of it,” said Scheid.
Hosting this World Cup is a mammoth task for Georgia, also because of its geographical location. Georgia is a neighboring country of Ukraine, where the Russian war of aggression is currently being waged, as well as a neighboring country of the conflicting parties Armenia and Azerbaijan. The severe earthquakes in Turkey and Syria also occurred not far from the Georgian border.
“We want to let that get to our athletes as little as possible,” says Scheid. “We did our homework in advance. We informed ourselves about the political situation at the Foreign Office and the Embassy. And we don’t want to let that get to our athletes. They should concentrate on the sport.”
Situation in Georgia “no longer an issue”
According to Scheid, the athletes had dealt with the situation in the run-up to the World Cup. “But now it’s no longer an issue in the team. And if you look at an athlete’s career, that’s a relatively manageable period of time. A World Cup is an important event and always an opportunity. You just don’t want to let it go by.”
But Scheid is aware of the seriousness of the situation: “Of course, this is a crisis region. We all know that the situation is dangerous.” But there is no sign of this on site, he says. “People are really hospitable. They try very hard. The government has also invested heavily in the region and has set a long-term goal for tourism. I can’t find the fly in the ointment.”
From an organizational point of view, however, not everything would work out at the World Cup, reports Scheid. The German snowboarders had to miss two days of training sessions due to technical problems.
Hosting the World Cup for Georgia “a mammoth task”
“We don’t know exactly whether Georgia is prepared for the challenge of the World Cup,” says Scheid. “It’s a mammoth task when you look at the disciplines and the different sports venues, so I hope they do well.”
If Georgia wants to be a regular competition station in the snowboarding calendar, the investments made must be sustainable and the tour must make regular stops in Georgia, says Scheid. “I hope that they will have staying power and build on what has now been created in a sustainable way.”