While Goggia and her companions will not train on the Gran Becca today due to weather conditions, the Olympic downhill vice champion is very tough on the Zermatt-Cervinia project: “With the current situation of the glaciers, we are going against all logic on the environment”.
The “Speed Opening” continues to cause discussion, it could not be otherwise since it is the great news of the 2022/23 World Cup, complicated to manage and … to dispute, since only on Saturday we will know if the jet men will really go down next week on the track along the 4 km of the new “Gran Becca” of Zermatt-Cervinia, in view of the men’s descents scheduled for 29-30 October.
The women are expected to compete on 5-6 November and in these days, after their colleagues who trained on the Plateau Rosa glacier in the last two weeks, they are working on the Matterhorn even if today, for example, the same team blue (with Goggia, Curtoni, Pirovano and the Delago sisters) was forced to remain in the pits due to the weather conditions at high altitude, with the fog covering the summit above an altitude of 3800 meters, at the height of the Hump of Rollin where the start of the first historic cross-border competitions in the history of the white circus.
Johan Clarey expressed himself very severely about the event hosted jointly by Switzerland and Italy. The transalpine veteran, who at 41 was able to get on the Olympic podium with a resounding silver downhill, spoke to RTS Sport about how he views the Zermatt-Cervinia project. “I simply think that this race does not make sense – the thought of the ’81 class from Annecy – I am convinced that this event has no future, it is enough to observe the conditions of the glaciers, which get worse every year, and this descent requires enormous resources, from the use of helicopters to the crevasses to be “plugged”.
All this does not go in the direction that the FIS should want; Great efforts are made in favor of the environment in the various locations, I do not think we give a good image of our sport by setting up these competitions ”.
Clarey also underlined the logistical problems: “It’s all very complicated, it takes at least an hour and a half to transfer back to the hotel from Cervinia to the ski lifts. I don’t think they thought a lot to athletes in this sense “.
