The FIS strangles the first downhill training in Beaver Creek despite difficult conditions, triggering heated discussions. Stefan Eichberger and the Austrians express harsh criticism.
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- The conditions in Beaver Creek are making life difficult for the organizers in Beaver Creek and are forcing the FIS to improvise.
- The first training session triggers heated discussions, which are also the result of misinformation.
- Marco Odermatt sets the fastest time, but admits in an interview that he missed a gate: "I found another shortcut."
The conditions are making life difficult for the organizers of the World Cup races in Beaver Creek this year. On the one hand, the weather forecasts for the upcoming race days are unfavorable, and on the other hand, the snow conditions also present challenges. The FIS is therefore forced to improvise.
Due to the lack of snow, the downhill and super-G will be held on a shortened course in the lower section. In addition, the downhill could be brought forward by one day to Thursday because a bad weather front has been forecast for Friday. And because the weather could also throw a spanner in the works on Wednesday, the first training session on Tuesday will become even more important.
According to the regulations, a downhill can only be held if every racer has completed at least one training run on the course.
Eichberger with harsh criticism
And so Tuesday's training session goes ahead even though the track is far from ideal due to fresh snow. In addition, fog made visibility difficult for the racers, causing interruptions and, according to Austrian Stefan Eichberger, even making it impossible for the helicopter to fly to the scene of an accident in the event of a crash.
"When I heard that, it was clear to me that we wouldn't be able to carry out this training session. In my opinion, it is absolutely cheeky that the take-off was allowed anyway," Eichberger rants in the Blick newspaper. In retrospect, however, it turned out that the Austrian had received incorrect information.
The helicopter was on standby during training and could have been used. "In this case, there was a miscommunication. That's why I can understand why the athletes were upset," explains FIS Race Director Markus Waldner.
Odermatt: "I'm glad that I made it to the finish in one piece"
Eichberger, however, is also annoyed by the conditions. He was glad to have survived the "complete blind flight": "Bottomless, really borderline - we stood at the start for an hour and a half, training like that is not in the spirit of the racer." Eichberger's teammates Vincent Kriechmayr and Marco Schwarz expressed similar sentiments. "Of course everyone wants to have a race. But pushing through a training session like this, which feels like it's interrupted every two runners, is not conducive to achieving the goal," says Schwarz.
Marco Odermatt is a little more relaxed. "It was undoubtedly a very difficult training session and I'm glad that I made it to the finish in one piece. But if we only ever raced when everything was 100 percent right, we probably wouldn't have more than four runs per winter," says the man from Nidwalden.
The bottom line is that everything goes well. None of the 76 skiers are injured and nothing stands in the way of a possible race on Thursday. However, the significance of the first training session is limited - and training winner Odermatt even admits in the SRF interview: "I found another shortcut and missed a gate. From that point of view, you can't judge the time."
