The alpine ski season is not yet open as the calendar is already subject to criticism. In particular, the second stage, which will be disputed between the end of October and the beginning of November in the resorts of Zermatt (Switzerland) and Cervinia (Italy), on the Matterhorn. A novelty in the middle of autumn which raises questions, particularly in terms of snow conditions: the International Ski Federation (FIS) exceptionally postponed the six-day “snow control” on Sunday, hoping for temperatures low enough to use snow cannons then that the bottom of the route remains desperately bare.
“I think this race is nonsense. Many runners think like me but very few will say so, said Frenchman Johan Clarey, silver medalist in the Olympic downhill in February in Beijing, to AFP. The race does not have to be. We see that the conditions on the glaciers are getting worse and worse every year, this stage requires enormous resources in a helicopter (to mount the equipment), human resources to plug the crevasses, to make a track drinkable… I don’t understand, that does not go in the direction in which the FIS should go. »
Like many other skiers, Clarey is well aware of the changes needed to ensure that ski racing has a future in the context of global warming. But nothing can be done without the good will of the authorities. “Many efforts in favor of the environment are made in the resorts to welcome the general public. So doing races that go the opposite of that, I don’t know if we give a very good image of our sport, ”he regrets.
In an interview published on our site this Wednesday morning, Alexis Pinturault also denounced the incongruity of certain decisions. “It’s all a question of management and power on the part of bodies like the FIS, of TV rights, of the calendar. There, for example, this year we are going to the United States, we are coming back to Europe and we are going back to the United States, it is nonsense, ”he illustrated. It’s starting to do a lot.