The Lauberhorn descent and dealing with Corona

More than 10,000 people attend Friday’s descent. Two years ago nobody was bothered by this, this year corona trenches are becoming visible. Once again, a social debate is accentuated by sport.

Visiting the open-air spectacle: spectators at the Lauberhorn descent on Friday.

Jean Christophe Bott / Keystone

Everyone watches the Lauberhorn races, whether on TV or in person. 13,500 people traveled to Wengen on Friday and further up the mountain to experience the World Cup downhill. As if nothing and nothing had ever happened.

When the last Lauberhorn races took place in 2020, some people didn’t yet know what a pandemic was. 61,000 spectators came over three days of racing and nobody bothered. The downhill winner: Beat Feuz, for the third time. He said: “It was not the first time that I was the favorite.”

After that there were four more descents, Corona came, the end of the season. And by mid-March 2020, all the protestations and hopes that the pandemic would make better people of us followed; that we would move closer together and become more tolerant.

Everyone is watching the Lauberhorn races. In 2019 there were more than a million TV viewers in German-speaking Switzerland, market share: 85 percent. The Lauberhorn races are a spectacle on the mountain and on TV, and they have always been a self-assurance of the skiing nation of Switzerland – but more and more also a fashion festival, you came because the others also went. Some stayed sober, others didn’t, year after year. Some understood why Feuz was once again the fastest, while others didn’t, but they were happy even though he hadn’t been the favorite for the first time. But above all, there was something heterogeneous about this large group, from ski insiders to festival brothers and sisters.

The third victory run: Beat Feuz 2020 on the Lauberhorn.

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Corona but selected. Many ski fans came to Wengen this year, just as many people traveled to Adelboden a week ago. And yet a lot is different. Suddenly, a visit to a ski race is read as a loud agreement to the Swiss corona measures. Or in this case: on the attitude of the Bernese government council, which allows the traditional ski races in the Bernese Oberland to be held in the same way, with spectators who can only make the last part of the journey to the car-free village of Wengen by train.

And at home people sit in front of the television and get angry. Or they send a picture of the grandstand in Adelboden from last week, people close together, with or without masks – including a photo from a classroom, four children, all with masks. It is the silent protest or the sign of incomprehension – it is seen as a contradiction that ski fans in the canton of Berne are allowed to celebrate outside without a mask of their own volition and Bernese school children have to learn outside with a mask under external control.

“We enjoyed it”

It goes so far that the drivers are almost instrumentalised. Some call them victims, potential corona victims who are not sufficiently protected. But there are drivers who enjoy this crowd. Before the Austrian Manuel Feller said last Saturday that Switzerland was apparently trying to “contaminate everything” over the weekend, he said that he would have to “take advantage” of attending the award ceremony.

And the Swiss Marco Odermatt was asked on Tuesday how he had experienced it with the spectators in Adelboden – certain drivers had expressed concerns about safety, “how do you see that, also with a view to the races in Wengen?” Odermatt said: “I think we athletes have been isolated very well from the hype and from the fans. Certainly more athletes found it positive – ultimately, I honestly haven’t heard anyone dislike it. We all enjoyed being in a bit of a mood again and skiing in front of fans.”

“I already overslept the first corner”: Marco Odermatt before the Lauberhorn debut in 2022.

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There is something irritating about the mixture of arguments and counter-arguments, of pertinent and oblique observations, but irritations are part of this era. And it’s not like the Lauberhorn races too big to fail would be, a myth that is neither shaken nor doubted. They fell a year ago, the government council withdrew their permit because of an increase in corona cases in Wengen – “so that the athletes can be protected, so that the place can be protected, so that the situation in Wengen can be defused,” like Urs Näpflin, the OK President of the Lauberhorn races, said at the time.

Holding the 2022 races with spectators is not a ski racing extravagance. Not like in St. Moritz in December 2021, when the cantonal doctor’s office granted the ski racers arriving from Lake Louise an exemption; Normally, travelers from Canada would have had to quarantine for ten days because of a virus mutation called omicron. Meanwhile, even the isolation for people suffering from omicron lasts only five days.

As early as November 30, 2021, the Federal Council came to the conclusion that “the adult part of the population willing to be vaccinated was sufficiently vaccinated” as stipulated in Article 1a, paragraph 2 of the Covid 19 Act – “due to this requirement, the Federal Council is no longer able to do so possible to order capacity restrictions indicated from an epidemic point of view, namely indoors”. This is one of the reasons why 3-G events are possible in ice hockey stadiums or on ski slopes.

A new homogeneity

A week ago, the SRF regional journal “Bern Freiburg Wallis” made a remarkable contribution with fans who had traveled to Adelboden. The reporter reported from the crowd, with people not all wearing masks. “And Corona?” she asked. “We’re not noticing anything right now. Maybe we’ll find out tomorrow,” said one woman. “Anyway, we’re all recovered,” said one man. A woman: “I’m not interested.” Another woman: “I’ve just come out of isolation and I’m just happy to have people around me again.” A man: “Celebrate the festivals as they come.” A woman: “It can’t be that bad that it’s happening now.”

Anyone who has not yet understood it can see it on site or in front of the TV these days: the state no longer steers with extreme vehemence, it hands over and expects personal responsibility. And what is also shown in it: the symbolic power of sport. It is generally denied its relevance – but at larger sporting events, which are attended by many, very many people, socio-political debates are accentuated. A general example: migration and integration issues in football. A more recent example: the corona vaccination discussion and the question of whether athletes should be role models.

And now: the ski races in the Bernese Oberland. Social rifts are becoming visible, on the one hand: these people who go to the races feel less respect than others, perhaps with less caution too. But it’s pretty sure that there is a certain homogeneity among them in their attitude towards Corona. On the other hand: those people who may have gone to Wengen in other years, but find a trip this year inappropriate; or those who would never think of traveling there anyway – but sit in front of the TV because it’s the Lauberhorn races. And feel alienated or not.

Everyone is watching the Lauberhorn races. And for some it may be a painful realization: This year the races in the Bernese Oberland show what has become of Switzerland. Or: what has not become of her. The Swiss have not all become more tolerant. After believing they’d gotten closer, some find each other stranger than ever.


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