Course setting and slope preparation with the FIS Staff - Behind the Scenes

A lot of details have to fit together in order to provide a great World Cup Race. Together with the local organising committees, the FIS staff works very hard to ensure safe, attractive and fair competitions. To have a better idea of what they are doing, we followed the Chief Race Directors Atle Skaardal and Markus Waldner and the Technical Operations Managers Andy Krönner and Mike Kertesz during the preparations for the World Cup Opening in Sölden. The FIS Alpine Ski World Cup is the top international circuit of Alpine Skiing competitions staged annually. It is considered the premier competition in alpine ski racing together with the quadrennial Olympic Winter Games and the biennial FIS Alpine World Ski Championships. Some experts event consider winning the World Cup to be athletically a more valuable title than winning gold at the Olympic Winter Games or the World Championships, since it requires a competitor to ski at an extremely high level in several events throughout the season, and not just in one race. Today, the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup races are held primarily at famous ski resorts in the European Alps, along with regular stops in Scandinavia, North America, and Far East Asia. Competitors attempt to score a maximum of points during the season in five events: slalom, giant slalom, super-G, downhill and super combined. The fifth event, super-combined, was introduced in 2005 and generally consists of a shorter downhill race and a one-run slalom. Sometimes the downhill is replaced by a super-G. Alpine was added to the Olympic winter schedule in 1936. For further information about FIS Alpine visit: http://www.fis-ski.com/alpine-skiing/ Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fisalpine Follow us on Twitter & Instagram: https://twitter.com/fisalpine https://www.instagram.com/fisalpine/