ALPINE SKI. Following the fascinating battles and outstanding atmosphere on the Olympic Mountain in Munich on 2nd January 2011, the Audi FIS Ski World Cup calendar foresees two parallel slalom City Events for the 2011/12 season: one in Munich on 1st January 2012 and the other in Moscow on 21st February 2012.

Moscow is no newcomer to organizing city parallel slaloms. Two promotional events, called the Alpine Skiing Champions Cup, were already staged in Moscow on 2nd January and 21st November 2009. Both of these were invitational events staged on a massive scaffolding ramp and saw the participation of the biggest stars in Alpine ski racing. The first event in January was held in the very heart of Moscow in the Vorobyovy Mountains, in front of Moscow’s State University’s main building, whilst in November, the knock-out competition was carried out on the grounds of the Moscow City Palace of Children's and Youth Creativity.

Preparations for the first Audi FIS Ski World Cup City Event in Moscow are in full swing. FIS Chief Race Director Günter Hujara inspected the progress on site in new venue the sport park Luschniki on Thursday: “The World Cup City Event in Moscow serves as a great prelude for the upcoming Olympic Winter Games in Sochi (RUS) where we will also have the first World Cup events this season. It will be great promotion for Alpine ski racing in Russia and we are pleased to have brought together at the same table all the major institutions and organizations to make the City Event happen in Moscow in February 2012. With the participation of the responsible governmental organizations we can secure smooth logistics for various details such as visas for the participants and officials,” he said.

Hujara added: “The new location in the Luzhniki Olympic Complex is another classical venue, with history similar to the Olympic Park in Munich. We as FIS are working to include big cities in the Audi FIS Ski World Cup calendar in the long-term to showcase our sport in metropolitan areas and to attract the younger generations. Our goal is to include a maximum of three City Events in the calendar – discussions are currently under way in the East Coast of North America with locations such as New York City and Quebec.”

The ramp in the Luzhniki Olympic Complex will be 56 meters high, 37 meters wide and 175 meters long which means that race run times of ca. 20 seconds are expected.

FISalpine.com
Monday 12 September 2011

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