New Snowboard season: Uwe Beier in interview

As part of its weekly series “Chat with the FIS Race Directors”, FIS Newsflash spoke to FIS Snowboard Race Director Uwe Beier about the upcoming season.

FIS Newsflash: You described the new season as Quality over Quantity, Quebec and Qualfications. Could you tell us a bit more?

Uwe Beier:
- “Quality over Quantity is one of our major goals for our events, one of the main principles for the World Cup calendar as we have already reached a great standard for all our six different events.
- Quebec: We are expecting fantastic and unique World Championships delivered by a very professional, motivated and experienced Organising Committee.
- Qualifications: For both the World Championships in Quebec-Stoneham and the Sochi 2014 Games, the whole season for the teams will be influenced by a battle for the national spots. You can feel the tension already.”

FIS Newsflash: What’s the most recent news on the FIS Snowboard World Cup 2012/13 you would like us to know?

Uwe Beier: "The number of nations that registered for the kick-off competition in snowboard cross in Schruns/Montafon (AUT) on 8th December will be higher than ever before, amounting to 28 nations. Typically, 22-24 nations have competed in previous years, so this reflects a continued positive trend for snowboard cross. We are expecting an increased number of nations competing in all venues this season."

FIS Newsflash: You mentioned the FIS Snowboard World Championships in Québec-Stoneham 2012 as a season highlight. What can snowboard fans around the world be looking forward to?

Uwe Beier: “The World Champs promise to be spectacular in all of our events both for riders and spectators. Slopestyle, which is held for the second time as part of the FIS World Championships, will see an increased level of performance mostly due to its addition to the programme of the Olympic Winter Games from 2014, which has been an obvious push for development. The big air event will be integrated in the opening ceremony and will not only showcase elite snowboarding but also deliver a great show. The layout of the snowboard cross course is new and therefore should allow lots of passing opportunities all the way to the finish line. Some groundwork has been done on the halfpipe this summer which will be bigger and longer than in any other event staged in Stoneham before, allowing a minimum of five hits per rider. The parallel and parallel slalom events will take place on one of our most classic slopes. The parallel slalom will for the first time see some very attractive features such as rollers and pro jumps.”

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