The decision is “in the interest of the safety of all participants and to protect the integrity of the World Cup” been taken, the association announced. It is currently being examined whether the competitions could be moved to another location.
First affected are the ski cross races in Sunny Valley in the Urals and the aerials competitions in Yaroslavl northeast of Moscow. There is also the Cross-Country World Cup in Tyumen (March 18-20) and the Women’s Ski Jumping World Cup in Nizhny Tagil (March 18-20) and in Tchaikovsky (March 25-27).
Previously, the ski cross qualification in Sunny Valley in the Urals had taken place as planned – but it became a farce due to the withdrawal of all teams except the hosts.
13 instead of 93 drivers
In the women’s category, only seven Russian runners qualified on Friday, their 26 originally registered competitors withdrew their participation. Of the 67 potential starters for the men, only six Russians remained.
The German Ski Association (DSV) had registered an eight-man team around Olympic third-placed Daniela Maier for the races in Sunny Valley – but withdrew them on Thursday.