Livigno PSL cancelled as Lombardy shuts borders
Mar 08, 2020·Alpine Snowboard
More unfortunate news hit the 2019/20 FIS Snowboard World Cup this morning, as the Livigno parallel slalom World Cup competition originally slated for Tuesday, March 10 has been cancelled after the Italian government took the unprecedented action of putting all of the Lombardy region under quarantine to aid in their efforts to slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
Located just minutes from the Swiss border, Livigno, in the province of Sondrio, is nonetheless part of the the Lombardy region. With Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte this morning signing a decree severely limiting movement in and out of the region it became crystal clear that this week’s Italian competition would not be able to proceed.
The news comes as a deep disappointment to local organisers in Livigno and to FISI, the Italian Ski & Snowboard Federation, as both organisations put in a huge amount of effort and diligent work above and beyond the norm to ensure a safe and successful debut for Livigno on the World Cup stage.
However, despite the fact that no cases of the COVID-19 virus have been reported in the province of Sondrio since February, the Prime Minister’s decree gave Livigno organizers and FIS Snowboard no choice but to call off the event.
The final competition of the FIS Alpine Snowboard season is scheduled to take place in Winterberg (GER) from March 14-15, with PSL competition on the 14th and a team event to close out the season on the 15th. Any updates on how the developing coronavirus situation in Europe will effect those competitions will be provided in the next 24-48 hours.
