Among the 100 things that every friend of alpinism should have experienced in color, the journey to the Alpine Ski World Cup in Wengen is pretty high on the hit list. By car it goes to Lauterbrunnen, there into the cogwheel train with its narrow compartments, in which the teams stuff all their equipment, skis, poles, wheels. Then the train jerks up the mountain, through a tunnel, suddenly the enormous panorama rises with the Swiss national shrines Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau in the distance. On the one hand, the four and a half kilometer long downhill slope meanders through nature, on the other is Wengen, 1,100 inhabitants, car-free. Seldom has your own dwarfing felt so comfortable.
The journey was eventful for the Alpine World Cup entourage this year for another reason, before the teams even reached the cog railway. Because the race week on the Lauberhorn was canceled on Monday after a few turbulent days and weeks.
Around the turn of the year, tourism in Wengen was purring on, especially the British have loved the place in the Bernese Oberland for decades. Then the authorities of the canton of Bern reported that 51 locals and tourists had tested positive for the corona virus from Christmas to the end. A spokesman for the Bern health department confirmed the Zurich Day indicatorthat in some positive cases a mutated variant of the virus was detected, apparently imported from a British. A second round of testing recently only uncovered one case in the village, but the canton of Bern announced last Sunday that it was considering closing schools, hotels and other businesses. One can no longer trace back all cases.
Athletes, supervisors, including the FIS World Ski Federation, who were simultaneously pursuing their technical races in neighboring Adelboden, expected a cancellation in view of the gloomy weather conditions. On Sunday, however, the Bernese authorities appeased: The closings had, roughly speaking, nothing to do with the upcoming race week, but with the past cases. The strict protocol will be tightened again. Athletes and supervisors should only stay in the hotel and on the track, they should feed themselves, be tested every day. The locals shouldn’t leave their homes in the meantime, and the ski area will be closed to tourists. That seemed a bit bizarre, to put it in a friendly way, but the Fis apparently had no problem with that: “Of course we’re all happy,” said race director Markus Waldner on Sunday evening.
A huge castling: Kitzbühel integrates almost all races from Wengen into its own calendar
On Monday morning, when athletes and supervisors were on various mountain passes, the entourage was suddenly put on hold again. According to reports, the Bernese authorities came to the conclusion overnight that a World Cup race in this general weather situation was irresponsible, possibly under pressure from higher authorities. The canton of Bern reported 164 new infections on Monday morning, but for its entire catchment area with around one million inhabitants. Several associations and drivers announced shortly afterwards that the World Cup week had been canceled; the Swiss Ski Association and the Wengen initially contradicted that nothing had been canceled. In the afternoon, the Fis confirmed that the Bern authorities had withdrawn the World Cup permission, and that the entourage could not have been adequately protected. Shortly afterwards, the people of Kitzbühel, who have always had little regard for dwarfism, already confirmed the replacement plans: With the exception of one descent, all the races from Wengen will be melted into their own racing calendar: next weekend there will be two slaloms – including the Wengener. the following week a replacement run on Friday, the Streif run on Saturday and the Super-G on Sunday.
For the Wengener it is the turbulent end of a turbulent year. Last spring, their conflict with the Swiss Ski Association briefly escalated: The OC had asked Swiss Ski for more money, the association found that the Wengener could easily make up for their business deficit by, for example, putting a sponsorship sheet over the dog’s head – that iconic jump, where the drivers rush past a rock. The tradition-conscious Wengen refused for a long time, they even went to the International Court of Justice, the ski association then deleted the Lauberhorn races from the World Cup calendar. In the end, both sides came to an amicable agreement, and a few days ago a sponsorship sheet was presented for the first time above the dog. The premiere will only rise next year.
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