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Step up, the Macs have Los Wochos! Lightweights have no chance in double races (Trevor Philp vs. Christian Hirschbühl, 11/14/2021)
The only parallel competitions of this year’s Alpine Ski World Cup season were held at the weekend. The setting: the luxury ski area Lech / Zürs in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg. The importance of the parallel competitions for the athletes themselves became particularly clear in the women’s race. There the two favorites for the overall World Cup victory, the US superstar Mikaela Shiffrin and the Slovakian winner of the previous year Petra Vlhová, did not even compete.
Parallel races in alpine skiing were first held in the 1970s in the North American World Pro Ski Tour. There racers drove who could not prevail in the World Cup. The parallel races have little to do with skiing ability. Two identical tracks cannot be made in alpine skiing, the start is extremely important, and lightweight racers have practically no chance.
The World Pro Ski Tour was discontinued in the early 1990s. When the International Ski Federation FIS was looking for competitions a few years ago to counteract the falling audience figures at World Cup races, the parallel races were remembered. For the first time these were also held in the World Cup. The racers were never convinced. At the Alpine World Ski Championships in 2021, the races even degenerated into a farce. The former top runner Felix Neureuther referred to them in the ARD as a “catastrophe”.
Not least because of this experience, the parallel races were almost entirely eliminated from the World Cup program this season. Why didn’t that apply to the races in Lech / Zürs, which are also held at a time when nobody is skiing? The reason is the same as for the absurd World Cup kick-off three weeks earlier on the Sölden glacier: the ski and tourism industry needs the events for early bookings.
In Lech / Zürs, the advertising fun costs a lot. More precisely: almost three million euros. The TV-compatible floodlight system alone costs more than a million. It is only being built temporarily. Several helicopter flights are required to erect and dismantle each mast. It is an advantage that the business community in the region has good connections to the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), which has ruled Vorarlberg for decades. The state government subsidizes the races with over one million euros, the municipality of Lech is adding half a million. Meanwhile, the Austrian Ski Association is happy to sell the television rights.
The organizers are not particularly careful with building permits. After the races in the previous year, several criminal proceedings were initiated with the responsible district administration. Permits had not been obtained for the created snow depot or the artificial snow-making system, or for digging up the slope or the access road suitable for trucks. Even a hut that stood in the way was simply moved a few hundred meters. One of the proceedings has been completed, the organizers have been sentenced to pay 60,000 euros. A no brainer given the money that flows from the public purse.
At least that year it was snowing. In the previous year, a white belt was driven in a brown landscape. In the women’s category, the Slovenian Andreja Slokar won ahead of the Norwegians Thea Louise Stjernesund and Kristin Anna Lysdahl. In the men’s category, Christian Hirschbühl and Dominik Raschner achieved a double victory in Austria, while Atle Lie McGrath from Norway came third. McGrath is the only one of those named who has already stood on the podium at a traditional World Cup race.
