Both the ladies and men's 2008/09 calendar comprised a total of 33 outdoor and 2 indoor races. This week the men are racing in Sarntal-Reinswald (ITA) where heavy winds today forced rescheduling of the downhill race to tomorrow while the ladies will continue in Zakopane (POL) mid-next week.

"Overall, this winter has been characterized with a lot of snow and enormous investments, both in terms of manpower and financial resources, in delivering the scheduled races," commented Markus Waldner, FIS Coordinator for the men's European Cup. "However, so far we have only lost one super combined race, thanks to these truly extraordinary efforts by the organizers."

Janez Flere, the ladies' European Cup coordinator, added: "On the speed side, we have been very unlucky with the weather for racing. At several excellent sites, such as Altenmarkt and St. Moritz, we were plagued by too much snow and were forced to improvise with the calendar. Fortunately we still have a good chance to carry out speed races in Tarvisio (ITA) and at the finals in Crans-Montana (SUI)." He added: "On the technical side, we have had much better luck with only one snow-related change and generally good conditions especially for the giant slaloms."

In the current rankings, the ladies leader is Austrian Karin Hackl who is in the midst of a great season especially in the speed events. Runner-up Nadja Kamer (SUI) is just 59 points behind and the two are likely to deliver a great fight for the overall title. 19-year-old Carmen Thalmann (AUT) is in her first European Cup season and in solid third position. Remarkable is also the rise of a new generation of German ladies slalom skiers who currently dominate the slalom standings with 5 racers in the top 7.

On the men's side, the overall rankings are led by Austrian Philipp Schoerghofer who has also recorded two top ten World Cup giant slalom results. Patrick Kueng (SUI), who made his World Cup debut in Wengen, trails him by 74 points, ahead of Florian Scheiber (AUT).

FIS
12/02/2009