It lies there like a gray veil, nestles into the valley, between brown and green. The World Cup slopes in Maribor in Slovenian appears little world championship, it was too warm in the northeast of the country, where the Bacher Mountains rose and where the World Cup of the parask drivers should start from the weekend, the races of the world’s best skiers with physical disabilities. The problem: Due to the forangeles of snow, it will be more a mini World Cup.
:“That was Pretty Fucked Up”
After her comeback announcement, Lindsey Vonn had to listen to a lot from previous ski heroes. Attacking at the age of 40 and titanium in the knee in the knee: she has a “full shot,” it said. At the World Cup in Saalbach, Vonn is now counting her skeptics.
The para department of the Ski World Association FIS has already canceled the downhill and Super-G race and the combination, the organizers are currently struggling to prepare the Pohorje-2 slopes so that on the narrow strip at least in the shorter technical disciplines WM medals can be awarded. Trainers and athletes are not very enthusiastic, or as the best German para-skier, Anna-Lena Forster, puts it: “It is a cheek that we are arriving here at all.”
On Tuesday evening, shortly after Anna-Lena Forster arrived in Maribor, she reported by phone. The condition of the slopes is “catastrophic”, says the monoski driver, with five gold medals at Paralympics currently the most successful parasker. “The narrow white band” is unsuitable for the most important sporting event of winter, explains the 29-year-old. “The lower part is no longer accessible.”
The problem is symptomatic in Paraskisport
A jump to Saalbach-Hintlemm, Austria, where on Thursday the Super-G of the non-disabled women was held in imperial weather and almost perfect snow conditions, 120 partly professional slides helped with the preparations, 15,000 spectators in the stadium and countless more on the side of the route made the race to the spectacle. This raises the question of why the Para World Cup is held in the snow-free Maribor-and not also in the Glemmtal?
“We athletes have already asked ourselves why it is not possible for us to drive after the non -disabled people or somehow around it,” explains Forster. “Everything would be there. We also had a descent in Saalbach. ”In her view,“ it would have been possible to pair that somehow. ”
In fact, the situation of the para skiers in Maribor gives a certain symptoms. Forster recalls the competitions two years ago, Forster recalls, and in 2019 a similar situation had occurred. In the meantime, she has for all the “complete incomprehension,” she says. “Nobody can understand how something like this can happen that a descent should be driven in a place like Maribor, where there has never been a lot of snow in recent years.”
Forster’s criticism is aimed at the World Association FIS Para Snow Sports. Similarly, the German paraski national coach Justus Wolf sees it: “It is annoying because the problem has been seen.” Already at a meeting with FIS in autumn 2024, Maribor was complained as a venue, said Wolf. “There were a lot of critical voices from the coachhood.” In view of the recent weather conditions there, “we could hardly believe that we should run here”.
The FIS defends the decision – the search for skiors is anything but simple
FIS Para Snow Sports defends itself on SZ demand. The snow check in Maribor was still positive on January 20. The organization committee had “worked extremely hard” in the past few weeks to ensure that, despite the high temperatures in the sometimes double -digit plus area, the teams would have expressed concerns for all races. However a major challenge and could lead to uncertain conditions. Based on these feedback, the jury decided to cancel the competitions ”.
Part of the truth is that it is obviously very complicated for the para department of the FIS to find a venue for para sports events. As so often, the main reason for this phenomenon is that the event is financially not very lucrative; Even more, the hosts fear a minus business. This could have to do with the marketing, unlike the non -disabled, no tickets are sold and no live seekers are sent. So problems with which other niche winter sports also have to struggle. Few people are as drastic as Forster and Co.
For a long time, a host for the pre -Paralympic World Cup had actually been in vain. Maribor was only awarded the contract in October 2024. With the ambitions of the athletes, this hardly fits together, “because we all train very professionally,” says Forster, “many of us are professional athletes”.
So why not a common World Cup in Saalbach, where winter feels as it should feel? The FIS does not respond to this specific question in its answer on Thursday. Forster, however, puts the “wish for more exchange” with the FIS. “I think that we would certainly have one or two solution approaches how to proceed in the future.”
At the weekend, the women’s and men’s giant slaloms are to take place in Maribor, the slaloms on Monday and Tuesday. While normality takes its course in Saalbach, they are currently training in a short course in a 15 -bar in Maribor, even shorter than the run at the Saalbacher team event at the start. He had 19
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