Felix Neureuther is worried about skiing. How can winter sports be practiced in the future? At the same time, he sharply criticizes the IOC and calls for a reorganization.
“The IOC has only one interest: and that is only the IOC. Thomas Bach also only has one interest: and that is himself. […] It’s a shame, because sport could do so many positive things. I think it needs a completely new top in the IOC for something to happen there.” These words from BR winter sports expert Felix Neureuther in Focus on Sport are clear and sharp. The former ski racer is worried about his sport. At the same time he is busy the future of skiing in the face of climate change.
Neureuther wants to show a positive example of sustainability
For Neureuther it is clear: Alpine skiing must deal with the issue of sustainability. That’s why he made a documentary. “The trigger was that I also wanted to show that there is already solution-oriented thinking in the skiing scene,” says the former ski racer in Blickpunkt Sport. It was important for her to also report on “positive examples”. According to his own statement, it bothers him that in the discussion about more sustainability in skiing, only negative examples are often given. “The lift operators and the ski areas see the time too and they also know that they are doing something.”
Scheduling of the World Cup calendar no longer up to date
The BR winter sports expert, on the other hand, calls the scheduling of the World Cup calendar “no longer up to date”. “If you start in the World Cup at the end of October or mid-October, where such an enormous effort has to be made that ski races can be held. That makes skiing “so vulnerable”, Neureuther is annoyed. He can also fully understand the criticism here. This is justified, “if you go and say ok, I’m organizing World Cup races in a place where snow is simply not guaranteed and an unbelievable effort has to be made for this ski race to take place,” said the 38-year-old.
“That (on the Matterhorn) crevasses are filled up with excavators so that you can then drive over them. That just doesn’t fit the time. According to Neureuther, it’s just as outdated “that near Kitzbühel there is skiing on a green belt in October and next to it the cows graze.”
Racing in China or Saudi Arabia harms skiing
Neureuther thinks little of the expansion plans of the President of the International Ski Federation (FIS), Johan Eliasch, to hold races in China or the Winter Games in Saudi Arabia. “It all harms skiing and that’s such a shame because skiing is such a great thing.” The scheduling of the World Cup races are the same annoyance for the former competitive athlete. “That you do a slalom in Chamonix before a World Cup in France, where the next slalom is two weeks later, where the journey is enormous for the athletes, that they go back home and then back to France. You could have done that smarter can.” Neureuther is sure.
In order to shorten the distances to the Ski World Cup circus, Neureuther wishes “that men and women can ski in the same places”.
IOC: Neureuther has given up hope
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is pursuing plans similar to those of the FIS. This became clear with the assignment of the Olympic Games to Beijing in 2022. Significant for Felix Neureuther, because “The IOC has only one interest: And that is only the IOC.” He had “given up hope” for change, said Neureuther on BR television.
Source: Blickpunkt Sport 05.02.2023 – 9:45 p.m
