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Season Review Alpine Skiing Men with Günter Hujara

The men's Chief Race Director Alpine Skiing Günter Hujara evaluated the past 2011/12 season.

Looking back...

Günter Hujara: The season had a difficult beginning due to late arrival of the snow and then continuing instability of the weather. There was nothing we could do to save the Munich City Event for example with unseasonal temperatures around +16C and rain during Christmas. January, February continued to be challenging with varying conditions but then we could enjoy almost summerlike Finals in Schladming.

The continuing fight for the overall title showed that there is a good balance of events on the men's World Cup program. With Marcel Hirscher and Beat Feuz we had a speed specialist fighting a tech specialist for the large globe. I was also very happy to see younger racers such as Alexis Pinturault, having the technical skills to establish themselves on the top of the rankings.

Our highly professional Organizers continue to work on refining the details and are now at the level of being able to focus on optimizing internal processes that are not even visible to the outside. This is the result of long, consistent work and cooperation over the years. And it is thanks to this foundation that we were in a position to welcome a brand-new Organizer, Sochi, on the tour this season at an impressively high level from the very beginning.

On the new ski regulations...

Günter Hujara: The positive feedback that we have received from athletes who have tested the new skis so far confirms the foundation of the new specifications. As opposed to some initial fears, the new skis are very skiable. We surely will not see images from "40 years ago" at the upcoming Season Opening in Sölden.
The main focus area of the decision-making process on the new specifications was based on knowledge of the injury mechanisms of the past years and sought to reduce the aggressiveness of the skis. The tests conducted so far confirm that the new skis are decisively less aggressive and substantially better controllable. Obviously there are changes in the behavior of the skis in the beginning of the curve. But the current feedback makes us feel confident that we are heading in the right direction.

Through additional changes in course-setting and course preparation we already managed to reduce the average speeds in this season's World Cup significantly and will continue to focus on this in all weather conditions. All these developments are carefully followed and analyzed through the FIS Injury Surveillance System program.

Future focus areas...

Günter Hujara: The 2012/13 season has considerable lower number of competitions planned because it became excessively clear this season that the calendar was too full. There was no space to react to poor weather or other challenges. The travel component, in terms of both time and money, has become a limiting factor, in particular regarding equipment transport. We especially saw this in the case of the Moscow City Event. We will plan 2-3 City Events in the future to continue to bring skiing to the main metropolis of the world, but their timing must be carefully considered and optimized for travel purposes.

Integral to the discussion related to the City Events is the question of core events in the World Cup schedule, which also concerns the super combined. The future calendar drafts no longer include super combined as a Cup with its own globe but the discussion on the repercussions of this, such as management of the World Cup Starting List for the super combined title events, will need to be clarified in the upcoming weeks until the FIS Congress in Korea at the end of May.

We will also continue to work with the Organizers on internal details such as team hospitality, start facilities and other back-office functions.

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