ALPINE SKI WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS. GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany – The sun is shining – almost to the point of T-shirt weather – the race courses are rock solid, Ga and Pa are on every street corner and Garmisch-Partenkirchen is ready for the 2011 FIS World Alpine Ski Championships.

photo (c) Reuters

Opening ceremonies kick off at 20:00 Monday (featuring World Cup veteran Liz Goergl of Austria singing the official song) and the race schedule is packed, beginning at 11 a.m. on Tuesday 8 Feb, with women’s super G, which, like all races, will take place on the famous Kandahar slope in Garmisch. The men’s super G follows on Wednesday and besides a couple of days of downhill training for both men and women, world champs go for two full weeks, wrapping up on Sunday 20 February with men’s slalom.

The forecast is calling for sun and warm temperatures throughout the week and top racers from both the men’s and women’s World Cup came to Garmisch directly from their technical stops on the tour last weekend, the men from Hinterstoder, Austria and the women from Arber-Zwiesel. Both had races on Sunday.

Lindsey Vonn is the defending world super G champion from the 2009 world champs in Val d’Isere and also won the last time the women raced super G on the Kandahar (last season at World Cup finals). She was 18th in Sunday’s giant slalom in Zwiesel and is recovering from a concussion sustained in a training crash last week (see video here).

Didier Cuche is the men’s defending super G world champion but Canadian Erik Guay was the last to win SG on the Kandahar at finals last year. Aksel Lund Svindal and Kathrin Zettel are the reigning world super-combined champions and John Kucera (see video here) is the world downhill champion, though he is recovering from injury and won’t be able to defend his title in Saturday’s men’s downhill. Carlo Janka won the downhill on the Kandahar last March, but Vonn, who is the reigning world downhill champion, finished second to Maria Riesch, who landed a big win in the speed race in front of her hometown crowd.

Moving onto the tech events, Janka also holds the championship gold medal in giant slalom and won the GS at finals last year while on the women’s side, Kathrin Hoelzl is the world GS champ though Tina Maze won the GS at the race in Garmisch last time around.

Surely everyone remembers Riesch’s dramatic slalom race that earned her the 2009 world championship slalom gold medal, although Marlies Schild won the slalom race in Garmisch last season … and has won every slalom race she’s finished on the World Cup ever since.

The next two weeks are packed with wall-to-wall racing with 525 athletes from 69 nations – more than any from the last five world alpine ski championships. GAP 2011 also welcomes 1,170 media representatives, a record for a world alpine ski championship event.

Catch all the action and info here!

FISalpine.com
Monday 7 February 2011

2011 World Alpine Ski Championships race schedule:

8 Feb: Women’s SG
9 Feb: Men's SG
11 Feb: Women's SC
12 Feb: Men's DH
13 Feb: Womens DH
14 Feb: Men's SC
16 Feb: Nations team event
17 Feb: Womens GS
18 Feb: Men's GS
19 Feb: Women’s Slalom
20 Feb: Men's slalom

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