St. Moritz outlines bid for 2013 alpine worlds

The Swiss resort of St. Moritz, the successful organizers of the 2003 FIS Alpine Ski World Championships, officially presented its bid for the 2013 events last week when a delegation led by local politicians and Hugo Wetzel, president of the candidature, went to the headquarters of the FIS in Oberhofen, near Bern, Switzerland.
     St. Moritz, which hosted two Olympic Winter Games in 1928 and 1948 and the 1974 FIS worlds, has been a regular organizer of World Cup events since 1971. It stages the main Swiss stop on the women’s tour.
     The 2003 World Championships were quite successful and well-attended by thousands of visitors who enjoyed spectacular competitions on the demanding Corviglia slopes.
     The North Americans did very well there, with three gold medals — Canada’s Mélanie Turgeon in downhill and USA’s Bode Miller in giant slalom and combined.
THE SWISS RESORT OF ST. MORITZ, the successful organizers of the 2003 FIS Alpine Ski World Championships, officially presented its bid for the 2013 events last week when a delegation led by local politicians and Hugo Wetzel, president of the candidature, went to the headquarters of the FIS in Oberhofen, near Bern, Switzerland.
     St. Moritz, which hosted two Olympic Winter Games in 1928 and 1948 and the 1974 FIS worlds, has been a regular organizer of World Cup events since 1971. It stages the main Swiss stop on the women’s tour.
     The 2003 World Championships were quite successful and well-attended by thousands of visitors who enjoyed spectacular competitions on the demanding Corviglia slopes.
     The North Americans did very well there, with three gold medals — Canada’s Mélanie Turgeon in downhill and USA’s Bode Miller in giant slalom and combined.
     The 2003 worlds were also marked by the first brother-sister triumph in the same specialty when Janica and Ivica Kostelic won gold in slalom.
     FIS officials said they are looking forward to also receiving soon the candidature of other big resorts such as Schladming, Austria; Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy; and Vail, Colorado. The deadline to deposit the demands at the FIS office is April 30.
    The favorite could be Schladming, the organizer of the spectacular “night slalom” race in January — a men’s slalom attracting more than 40,000 visitors each year since 1997. It hosted the 1982 World Championships. The resort, located southeast of Salzburg, not far from Graz, is a top candidate thanks to Austria’s strong position among many important federations. It received a third of the votes from FIS council members (17 people) at the last FIS Congress in Vilamoura, Portugal, where Germany’s Garmisch-Partenkirchen was selected.
     The slopes at Schladming — especially the exciting “Planai” course — are spectacular and always attract lots of spectators. The town is not as glitzy as St. Moritz, yet big enough to comfortably host the teams and thousands of visitors and sponsors.
     Cortina d’Ampezzo, where the Winter Olympics took place in 1956, allowing Toni Sailer to become the first triple Olympic champion in the history of the sport, is a really lovely resort surrounded by stupendous mountains. The thousand-year-old town is nice and has great hotels and outstanding restaurants, where Italy’s upper class likes to spend a few days at Christmas and Easter.
    It would be nice to have a FIS World Championships there one day, but it’s difficult to imagine the success of that place in 2013, just eight years after Bormio 2005 and seven years after the Torino Olympics.
     Vail (certainly with Beaver Creek) has not officially announced its intention to go for another bid after organizing memorable World Championships in 1989 and 1999. The resort from Colorado was eliminated in the second round at the 2004 Congress in Miami where Val d’Isère was finally chosen for the 2009 worlds after several attempts. The Vail Valley was aiming to become the site for alpine, snowboard and freestyle competitions during the same months, but the FIS didn’t support that proposal.
    After pulling out of the snowboard and freestyle bids a few days prior the votes, Vail remained a candidate for the alpine events but didn’t make it to the last round.
    This U.S. candidate should have a fair chance to become a big player for 2013 after doing such a great job each year when the men’s World Cup tour stops at Beaver Creek’s Birds of Prey. That fantastic slope is the only one to successfully host four men’s events each winter.
    The Vail Valley Foundation, which organizes many of the major events in the Vail Valley, may announce its decision soon.
     Interestingly enough, no new names came up for this bid — none from new international ski destinations in the eastern part of Europe where winter tourism has seriously increased recently. Countries such as Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Romania and Bulgaria are developing new ski facilities to attract more visitors and investors from Great Britain, Germany and Scandinavia.
     Thanks to the numerous low-cost airlines and charter companies flying there, it has become quite easy to reach some of those areas from major European cities and enjoy great skiing too.
     The decision on the 2013 FIS worlds will me made next spring at the 2008 FIS Congress at Cape Town, South Africa. In the meantime, another key event may influence the issue of that vote.
     In July, the 106 IOC members will choose the host of the 2014 Winter Olympics during their meeting in Guatemala City. The cities of Salzburg (Austria), Sochi (Russia) and Pyeongchang (South Korea) made the cut last spring for this vote. Salzburg seems to be the front-runner, but Pyeongchang, which almost beat Vancouver in the first round of votes for the 2010 Olympics, still has many friends among the IOC members.
    Sochi, a beautiful place located at the Black Sea, is more than a strong outsider. The place, a very popular vacation resort in the summer too, has great potential — and a powerful supporter with President Vladimir Putin.
    He likes skiing there with friends, including Austrian ski legend Karl Schranz, who he met at the 2001 worlds at St. Anton. Schranz, known for his sometimes controversial attitudes since retiring as a racer, strongly backs Russia’s candidacy instead of supporting Salzburg.
    It could be part of the longtime rivalry between Tyrol and Salzburg, which always fought for supremacy on the ski slopes in Austria and the rest of the world.