Adverse weather conditions continued to disrupt the World Cup skiing calendar as the men’s World Cup slalom in Val d’Isere and the women’s super-G in St. Moritz were both cancelled on Sunday.
This marks the seventh men’s event cancellation this season out of nine scheduled. Marco Odermatt secured victory in Saturday’s giant slalom before inclement weather forced the cancellation of the subsequent slalom.
Markus Waldner, men’s chief race director, explained, “The snow was really good yesterday during the GS, and then late afternoon, it starts raining. And then it turns into wet snow, strong wind also. We went out at two o’clock in the morning. The base was actually gone, not good enough to race anymore.”
Prior to Saturday’s giant slalom, only one other race, a slalom in Gurgl, Austria, proceeded as scheduled. Various events, including the season giant slalom opener in Soelden and two downhills in Zermatt-Cervinia, had been cancelled due to weather-related challenges.
In St. Moritz, heavy snowfall overnight made the Corviglia course unsafe for the women’s super-G. Peter Gerdol, FIS race director for women, stated, “The minimum was 20 centimetres, there were some spots where it was over 40. The snow covered the whole course, and the race line that we kept quite clean until last night. This new snow destroyed the base.”
The cancellation affected the first women’s speed race of the season, following the weather-induced cancellations of the two downhills at Cervinia-Zermatt in mid-November. Despite these challenges, Sofia Goggia and Mikaela Shiffrin had secured victories in the preceding races in St. Moritz.
The women aim to resume in Val d’Isère next weekend, featuring a downhill and a super-G, while the men will resume with four consecutive days of racing in Val Gardena and Alta Badia in the Italian Dolomites starting Friday.
