“People can’t take it anymore”
Heated “alarm” debate rages in front of the infamous Streif
January 15, 2024, 3:49 p.m
Alpine skiing fascinates people. The descent in particular always generates enormous interest. Also because riding on the big slopes is always a razor’s edge. After serious falls, an angry debate breaks out. The FIS boss is increasingly coming into focus.
Kitzbühel, the Streif. The most famous, but also the most infamous, the most brutal downhill race in the ski circuit. This is where legends are born and careers are destroyed. This week, of all places, a torn scene is dragging its way to this mythical place, in which a debate about safety and stress is once again raging. And in which one points accusingly at the other. “Alarm for Kitzbühel,” it was said dramatically in the Austrian “Krone,” and the terrible images from Wengen have alarmed the scene. Brutal falls, blood on the slopes, battered stars in the hospital: early voices fear for the future of the sport.
“If parents see more and more violent falls on TV broadcasts of ski races, at some point they will forbid their children from going to ski clubs and ski races,” said Christian Höflehner, racing director of the gigantic ski outfitter Atomic, to Schweizer Boulevard -Sheet “Look”. Some say the program is too extensive and point to the double runs in Wengen or now in Kitzbühel. Others say the spectacle is becoming more and more exaggerated.
“There is not just one truth”
“You have to be able to differentiate,” said German Alpine boss Wolfgang Maier. He warned against populism, “there is not just one truth.” The disastrous falls of top stars Marco Schwarz in Bormio or Alexis Pinturault and Aleksander Aamodt Kilde in Wengen all had individual reasons; overload cannot be said in general here.
Maier sees the “real problem,” and he is not alone, in World Association President Johan Eliasch. The Swedish-British businessman interfered too much in the calendar planning and overloaded the program with departures in a very short space of time. Because it was not possible to race in Beaver Creek and at Eliasch’s prestigious project in Zermatt due to the weather, the races were rescheduled – to the applause of many athletes, as every cancellation costs attention and money.
“I hope this is the last time, never again!”
The organizers didn’t resist either – on the contrary! In Kitzbühel they are happy to be able to offer a second shot on the Streif instead of the poorly marketable Super-G. Even if the former Kitz winner Thomas Dreßen said the classic would be “devalued” in this way. Like in Wengen, where three speed races were held in addition to two training sessions within five days. “I hope this is the last time, never again!” complained even the Swiss ski hero Marco Odermatt, who won both downhill runs. Wengen should be “a lesson” “for every venue, for every association, for the FIS, that more is not always better”.
Maier is also bothered by the “higher, faster, further”, more and more action. In this way, he said, “an attractive sport would be seriously damaged. This has to come to an end because people can’t stand it anymore.” Race director Markus Waldner made a promise to the athletes in Wengen. “In the future we will certainly not reschedule any more races, that is the case as long as I am race director.” But can he resist the constraints and a president who wants to rule everywhere? Eliasch gave the answer long ago. The racing drivers who are under a lot of pressure, he said with a shrug, could also forego starting.