On Wednesday at the 53rd FIS Congress in Milan, the Montafon was awarded the contract to host the Freeski and Snowboard World Championships 2027. The ÖSV will start next year with the Junior Ski World Championships in St. Anton, and thereafter the Ski Flying World Championships 2024 in Kulm/Bad Mitterndorf and as a big highlight the Alpine Ski World Championships 2025 in Saalbach.
Two years later, Crans-Montana follows the Pinzgauers. This was also decided on Wednesday at the FIS Congress. The Swiss ski resort failed in the first attempt because of Saalbach. And now clearly prevailed with 11 votes in the election against Soldeu (Andorra) and Narvik (Norway) with 3 votes each and Garmisch-Partenkirchen (1). This is the second time – exactly 40 years after the “Swiss Festival” in 1987 – that World Championship fights are taking place in Valais. At that time, the Confederates captured eight of the ten gold medals.
Montafon’s World Cup bid had no opponents. Austria will host world championships in the freestyle and snowboard disciplines for the second time. The first combined world championships of these two sports took place in 2015 at Kreischberg. “We are pleased to be going back to our roots with an Austrian resort as host and are even more pleased to place these world championships in the very competent hands of the Montafon”, stated FIS President Johan Eliasch.
Sustainability should be the focus
The ÖSV wants to make the event sustainable like all future ones, explained ÖSV President Roswitha Stadlober. “That’s why, for example, the halfpipe competitions take place in Kühtai (Tyrol) so that no earth movements have to be implemented.” Manuel Bitschnau, Managing Director of Montafon Tourismus GmbH, is expecting “the largest winter sports event in the history of Vorarlberg”.
However, the first decisions were also made about the upcoming Ski World Cup season 2022/23. There will be 40 races for women and 42 for men. Exactly what the calendar looks like is not yet known to the public. In addition, for the time being there will be no combination rankings of downhill/Super-G or slalom/giant slalom. The idea should be discussed further.
The Nordic World Ski Championships 2027 will take place in Falun (Sweden) as expected. After 1954, 1974, 1993 and 2015, the small town with a great winter sports tradition is hosting the major event for the fifth time and was the only applicant. This also applied to Oberstdorf in terms of the Ski Flying World Championships 2026. The town in the Allgäu was also awarded the contract.
Source: Nachrichten
