Ski Cross Summer Site Inspections In Full Swing

The Audi FIS Ski Cross World Cup kick-off is getting closer and closer by the day. The ski cross race directors therefore have some very busy weeks behind and still ahead of them with their summer inspections at various World Cup resorts, in order to finalize the preparations with the respective organizers.

To spoil it from the beginning, the Audi FIS Ski Cross World Cup will feature 14 single events and one mixed-team event in the 2021/22 season and on top of that, there will be the major highlight event coming up in February, where ski cross athletes will have a tight battle for the Olympic medals at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.

The season kick-off will already take place in China at the end of November, it will be the official test event for the upcoming Olympic Winter Games. The season opening and closing (in Veysonnaz, CH) will again be conducted together with the FIS Snowboard Cross World Cup. Therefore, we can expect some serious cross action at the Chinese resort of Zhangjiakou at the beginning of both World Cup tours.

The Audi FIS Ski Cross World Cup will then feature their traditional European stops, such as back-to-back races in France’s Val Thorens, where during their summer inspection the organizers, together with FIS race director Klaus Waldner and his assistant Christian Cretier, as well as the course builders decided on a slight adaptation for the middle part of the course.
Furthermore, fans can finally again expect some World Cup side events in Val Thorens, like the athlete’s bib draw, after the pandemic-caused hiatus last year.

The summer inspection tour of the FIS team then lead to Veysonnaz (CH), where the OC of the World Cup finals confirmed to be wanting to get back to normality with a bib draw event as well, of course only, if the circumstances will allow it.

Site inspection at the World Cup finals resort in Veysonnaz (CH)
At the site visit in Idre Fjall (SWE), the host of last year’s triple World Cup event (the “Idre Fjall TRE”) and the FIS Ski and Snowboard Cross World Championships 2021, Klaus Waldner met with the new TV production team of NCP TV. A very fruitful meeting took place, with the new and highly motivated team and we cannot wait to see the outcome in live TV in January next year.

“We have such a good collaboration with our World Cup organizers in general. The summer inspections allow us for open discussions, which most of the time lead to new ideas for the upcoming racing season. It is good to explore new lines for the course during the summer and then see them come to live in winter,” FIS Ski Cross race director Klaus Waldner says.

“We had some really successful site inspections so far and will continue the tour in Russia’s Sunny Valley, then we will have a visit in Nakiska (CAN) and a small delegation will also go to China before the test event in November will kick-off our World Cup season. We are really excited to have mostly double events at most stops of the tour. And in Arosa we will have the first ever mixed-team night event. Not long now and we will be starting a fantastic new season,” Waldner adds.

It is also very exciting to see Austria’s Reiteralm back in the calendar, where the Crosspark is a very popular permanent training facility for ski and snowboard cross athletes. The Austrian resort made its World Cup debut last year and therefore it is great to see Reiteralm coming back for more.

You can find the preliminary Audi FIS Ski Cross World Cup schedule HERE and please come back to check in on news updates more frequently now as we approach the new season with big steps.