Can the Alpine Combined be Saved?
September 28, 2021
oticeably absent from this year’s World Cup calendar, lost among 75 men’s and women’s races, is the alpine combined, leaving many perplexed about the future of the historic event. For ski racing purists, it is an alarming omission.
FIS men’s race director Markus Waldner said efforts were made to accommodate the discipline – traditionally combining one run of downhill or super G along with slalom – but ultimately details could not be worked out.
“We checked all options for this year’s calendar – no solution was found for TV technical or financial reasons,” Waldner told Austrian ORF television. The Italian race director also informed that venues in consideration were Wengen for the men and Zauchensee for women.
The combined event or combination, which made its Olympic debut at the 1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Winter Games and was later resurrected for Calgary 1988 after a 40-year absence, remains on the Olympic program in Beijing for both men and women in February. However, if the event does not return to the World Cup calendar over subsequent seasons, its Olympic status will also be doomed.
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Posted from SkiRacing.com
