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Moscow hosts Ski World Cup City Event
The World Cup's top racers were looking forward to the 2012 City Event in Moscow for several weeks before it finally came to fruition on 21st February - the only parallel City Event in the program this season after the cancelation of the Munich event on New Year's Day. As the fast-moving action played out, nobody was as thrilled, however, as France's Alexis Pinturault and American Julia Mancuso, both of whom surprised themselves by winning their races.
"I never thought I could win," said Mancuso, who won all but one of her eight runs all night. "It's a good example of how if you fight hard enough, you can do it."
It was the first World Cup victory for Pinturault, who had never so much as trained parallel slalom until his couple of runs before the race began down the 60 meter-high, 175 meter-long ramp.
Germany's Felix Neureuther and Austria's Michaela Kirchgasser were the runner-ups in the city event, which took place at Moscow's Luzhniki Palace of Sports, which hosted the 1980 Summer Olympics, whilst Lindsey Vonn and Andre Myhrer won the Small Final to take third place respectively.
Totally different to anything else on the World Cup schedule, the city events pitch one athlete against another, both starting together at the top of the ramp and fighting their way down their own course trying to cross the finish line before their neighbor. The Moscow course included a drop-jump and averaged just below 20 seconds from start to finish, with execution of the start being one of the key factors in having a successful run in such a short run. The top 15 athletes in the World Cup overall standings were qualified to compete as well as one wild card male and female from the Russian team.
Some 5,000 spectators turned out to watch the races as tens of thousands of others filled the football stadium next door for the UEFA Champions League match between CSKA Moscow and Real Madrid. All in all, the event elicited a high-energy party atmosphere as well as a new sense of competiveness and camaraderie amongst the athlete.
For more details, visit www.fisalpine.com
Contributed by Shauna Farnell