FIS Autumn Meetings Conclude in Zurich

On Saturday, October 5, the FIS Autumn Meetings officially came to an end at the Hilton Zurich Airport Hotel after a week of productive meetings to best shape the future of the FIS Alpine World Cup. Below are the main updates from the five-day meetings in Zurich.

Soldeu to host 2023 Finals
Grandvalira Soldeu, Andorra was awarded the 2023 FIS Alpine World Cup Finals and will therefore host the finals for the second time, after the successful edition in March 2019. The Andorran resort prevailed over Kvitfjell, Norway, and Lenzerheide, Switzerland, who were the other two candidates.

Before going back to Grandvalira Soldeu, the finals will be hosted in Cortina, Italy, in 2020, Lenzerheide in 2021, and Meribel/Courchevel, France, in 2022. 

Alpine Combined starting order 
The new format of the alpine combined features a speed run first (preferably a super-G, but a downhill run is also possible), followed by a slalom run. The starting order of the slalom run will not be reversed anymore, which means that athletes will start in the same order as they are ranked in the speed run.

In the upcoming season, four alpine combined events will take place on the women’s Tour in Val d’Isère, France, Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, Austria, Crans Montana, Switzerland, and La Thuile, France with three events on the Men’s Tour in Bormio, Italy, Wengen, Switzerland, and Hinterstoder, Austria. 

Parallel (PAR) Format
The parallel format had to be adjusted again to make sure it is TV-friendly. There will be one qualification run, after which the first 32 athletes will qualify to the elimination phase. The round of thirty-two will have a “run, re-run” format, but from the round of sixteen, there will be only one run of single elimination knock-out. 

Long-term calendars 
Both the official calendar for the coming season and the first drafts for the coming years (up until 2023) were presented. For the 2019/20 season, Stockholm dropped the PAR event, which on the women’s side will be hosted in Are. On the Men’s side, the event will not take place as there were no venues ready to host the event with such short notice but strong candidates for the season 2020/21 have already stepped forward. 

Release courtesy of FIS.