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This year the FIS Alpine World Ski Championship will be hosted in Cortina D’Ampezzo, Italy, a very popular destination for any skier and for our customers at Maison Sport. The event will run from February 7 until the closing ceremony on February 21, 2021. This 14-day event will consist of athletes from 70 different countries competing for 13 titles in the seven disciplines listed below.  

For ski enthusiasts, this is always a great event to watch, as any other ski-related event to be honest, at least someone gets to ski this year, right?  There were rumours last year that the World Championship was going to be postponed because of Covid-19, but after much consideration, it was decided to go ahead with the event as planned and just make sure it was as safe as possible for all the people involved. Unfortunately, there won’t be a live audience, but they have found a great solution to help fans get closer to the action. 

Disciplines 

There are 7 disciplines at the Alpine World Ski Championships

  1. Downhill: An event that is all about speed. Competitors race to get the fastest time down a long and winding slope. Downhill events usually have the longest distances, and their course includes fewer turns and steeper drops, in order to allow skiers to reach incredible speeds – the highest speed ever recorded is 100mph, by Frenchman, Johan Clarey, at the 2013 Wengen World Cup Downhill.

  2. Super G: Also a speed competition just like downhill but in the Super G competitors have 30 mandatory turns they need to make, which results in slightly lower speeds and the courses are slightly shorter than in downhill.

  3. Slalom: Thought to be the most technical discipline in alpine skiing. Participants compete for the fastest time as they descend a short slope full of poles or gates through which they have to slalom.  The poles or gates are placed with as little as 5.5m of distance between each other making it extremely challenging for the athletes to manoeuvre through them at high speeds. 

  4. Giant Slalom: Just as the name might suggest, the giant slalom is just a bigger and longer version of the regular slalom. In this discipline, skiers can really build up speed since the course is longer and there are fewer gates to go through. 

  5. Alpine Combined: Alpine combined is simply the combination between a slalom and a downhill run. Participants complete 2 slalom runs and only one downhill run, their times are then combined and the fastest one wins. 

  6. Parallel Slalom: A very exciting event to watch! It’s very similar to slalom, where a course of tight turns is set, but instead of individual poles/gates, giant slalom style flag panels are used. As the name suggests, parallel slalom involves two competitors running side by side, each one with his/her own set of gates – the first to the bottom wins. It’s run in a tournament-style format, with the fastest skier from each side of the drawer meeting in the final, leaving a single winner.

  7. Team Parallel: Nations compete as a team of 6, each participant will go against another participant from an opposing team, just as in parallel slalom. Whoever wins the run wins a point for their team. The team that finishes with most points, wins the team parallel competition.

Who Are We Most Excited to See Compete?

Dave Ryding: Competing for the British team, Dave has been skiing since he was 6 years old. Ever since starting his skiing career he has achieved 9 British Slalom Titles and competed in 3 Winter Olympic Game, 4 World Championship, recently finished 3rd in the Adelboden World Cup and has won a Europa Cup. 

Breanna “Breezy” Johnson: Breezy is part of the U.S.A team in Downhill and Super G. So far this season she has gotten excellent results, reaching the podium 4 times in 3rd place downhill, in Val d’Isere, San Anton, and Crans-Montana. 

Alexis Pinturault: Competing for the French team, he is the skier with the most World Cup victories (33). He represented France in five World Championships and 3 Winter Olympics winning 4 bronze medals in the giant slalom. 

Marco Odermatt: Part of the Swiss team, Odermatt races in all disciplines, but specializes in Giant Slalom. He gained his first world cup podium in 2019 coming in 3rd place, and his first World Cup 1st place was in 2019 Beaver Creek Super G race. 

This Year It’s All Virtual

Given the on-going COVID-19 situation worldwide, the FIS has decided not to cancel the event, but instead opted for a much more technologically advanced plan…they will bring Cortina D’Ampezzo to you. 

There is an app already available for download on the App Store and Google Play, which will allow users to discover behind-the-scenes photos and videos, explore the slopes where the races will take place, and check event calendars to know when your favourite athletes will be skiing. Users will also be interacting with Cortina 2021 ambassadors, Sofia Goggia and Kristian Gedina!

If you’re wondering where you will be able to watch the World Championship it really depends on where you are in the world, but for sure streaming services like Rai Play, Eurosport Player, and DAZN will be live streaming the whole championship. Here’s a little secret…most of these platforms give you a trial period so you can sign up and if you find that after the Championship you don’t use it as much as you thought just cancel your trial period before the subscription starts. 

We are excited to enjoy this event, as you can really get the thrill of the sport when you watch the athletes skiing down the slopes, and we’ll definitely keep you posted on what goes on. There are many talented competitors this year, as every year, and it will definitely be a new experience seeing the World Championship with no live audience but with such an interactive app.