The three-time Olympic champion Maria Höfl-Riesch has suggested changes to the World Cup calendar in view of the ongoing problems in the Ski World Cup.
“They have to be happy if they can hold races at all,” said the 39-year-old on the BR program “Blickpunkt Sport”.
“It’s far too warm at the moment, there’s no snow. There have always been cancellations. But this accumulation, like this season, of course makes you think about it,” explained Höfl-Riesch and said: “It would certainly make sense to go to higher altitudes, adjust the racing calendar a little and start later.” But she also confessed: “The golden solution has not yet been found.”
From Höfl-Riesch’s point of view, it is certain that the “crazy travel” like in the current season is not beneficial. “I’m in contact with a few trainers. They also say: These are not recovery phases from the travel organization and the stress,” she explained: “And especially when the runners are already at their limit with the many races, there are a lot of them Traveling is difficult.”
This winter, nine men’s and five women’s races have already had to be canceled. There was criticism because of the high number of competitions, the associated stress, the amount of travel and partly because of the design of the slopes like at the fall festival in Cortina d’Ampezzo.
Top stars in the scene such as Mikaela Shiffrin, Petra Vlhova, Corinne Suter, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, Alexis Pinturault and Marco Schwarz are out longer due to serious injuries or were forced to take breaks after falls. The men’s second trip to the USA this season is now on the agenda.