NYC, Quebec discussing holding Cup City Events
World Cup skiing – in the form of “city events” – will likely be seen on the east coast of North American in the not too distant future according to FIS Chief Race Director Gunter Hujara. New York City and Quebec City are the front runners in discussions between FIS and potential organizers.
City events, held on artificial ramps in city locations, have been successful in Moscow in 2009 and last season in Munich. Last year’s event was the first of those to count for World Cup scoring. This season two are planned on the World Cup schedule, one Munich on New Years Day and the second in Moscow Feb. 21.
Hujara inspected the Moscow site Thursday (Sept. 8) and said preparations were well underway.
“The World Cup City Event in Moscow (at Sports Park Luschniki) serves as a great prelude for the upcoming (2014) Olympic Winter Games in Sochi where we will also have the first World Cup events this season. It will be great promotion for Alpine ski racing in Russia and we are pleased to have brought together at the same table all the major institutions and organizations to make the City Event happen in Moscow in February 2012. With the participation of the responsible governmental organizations we can secure smooth logistics for various details such as visas for the participants and officials,” Hujara said.
He added: “The new location in the Luschniki Olympic Complex is another classical venue, with history similar to the Olympic Park in Munich. We at FIS are working to include big cities in the Audi FIS Ski World Cup calendar in the long-term to showcase our sport in metropolitan areas and to attract the younger generations. Our goal is to include a maximum of three City Events in the calendar – discussions are currently under way in the East Coast of North America with locations such as New York City and Quebec.”
The ramp in the Luzhniki Olympic Complex will be 56 meters high, 37 meters wide and 175 meters long which means that per run race run times of 20 seconds are expected.
Moscow event photo by Gepa