Arosa is ready to kick off the 2020/21 SX season
Dec 14, 2020·Ski Cross
The wait is finally over! The Audi FIS Ski Cross World Cup Tour is all set for the highly anticipated opening of the season! It has been quite the wait, but now athletes are just so ready to send it!
This year's stop will be one to watch, as the Arosa stage of the tour will feature the thrilling night-time short-course format of competition in back-to-back races on Tuesday and Wednesday night under the floodlights.
It will be exciting to see, who will be the fastest out of the start gate after the competition-free period. Who will have the best tricks up their sleeves, who will anticipate their opponent’s moves the best and who will quite simply ski the fastest?!
Unfortunately, we have to announce some sad news, as the 2019/20 ski cross overall crystal globe winner on the women’s side, Sandra Naeslund (SWE) will not be taking part in the first races of the season. The Swedish ski cross ace injured her right knee during training in November. While Naeslund does not have to undergo surgery, she needs some time to recover her cartilage damage and after hopefully some successful rehab training, we will see the Swedish athlete back in the start gate, probably at the beginning of next year.
Also, home hero and 2017/18 SX overall crystal globe winner Marc Bischofberger (SUI) will miss the first races of the season, due to a shoulder injury.
We wish them both a quick recovery and hope to welcome them back soon on the circuit!
Who will be the fastest on the women’s side?
Who will be certainly one to watch on the women’s side at her 104th World Cup start is Swiss ski cross star Fanny Smith, as she has been on the podium five times already in Arosa, of which she claimed three victories so far.
Always highly motivated, but particularly on home soil, Smith is expected to open this season with a bang and add another win or two to her existing 23 World Cup victories up to date.
Marielle Thompson (CAN), current Ski Cross World Champion, will for sure try to stop Smith from taking another win, especially since Thompson won the Arosa night competition last year and will undoubtedly try to defend her title at her 90th World Cup start.
In total, Thompson has claimed two victories so far in Arosa.
Thompson holds the record of 24 World Cup victories until now, which is the most victories by an active athlete so far. One can expect that she will try to break the record of Ophèlie David’s 26 World Cup wins, which is the all-time record for a female athlete in ski cross until today.
Should Thompson win both competitions in Arosa, she will have tied that record and after that the road is free to set some new records in ski cross history.
While there are many young talents on the Swiss team, fighting their way to the top ranks of the cup standings, like Sixtin Cousine or 2016 Youth Olympic Games gold medalist Talina Gantenbein, we are also happy to see Sanna Luedi back in the start gate.
A bad crash at the opening race of last season in Val Thorens, took the Swiss athlete out for the rest of the season. But whoever knows Luedi, knows that she is always fighting her way back like a champ. With her strong mindset, one should keep an eye on her at her comeback race.
Looking on the men’s side
So far, there has not been a dominant athlete to claim a couple of victories over the course of the years on the men’s side of things in Arosa. The only athlete to ever win twice at the Swiss venue was retired Swedish athlete Victor Oehling Norberg in 2015 at back-to-back races.
Other than that, we saw different male athletes on top of the podium at every competition so far.
Last year, overall SX crystal globe winner and World Championship bronze medalist Kevin Drury (CAN) claimed his second of four season wins ahead of Viktor Andersson (SWE), who in 2017 stood on top of the podium in Arosa, which means that he seems to be a fan of the Swiss short-course installment under the floodlights.
But let’s have a look on the Swiss male athletes: Veteran Alex Fiva claimed the third rank two years in a row now and will probably be seeking to jump to that first spot, like he did in 2014 at the very first ski cross competition ever held in Arosa.
Jonas Lenherr claimed his last victory here in Arosa in 2018, causing the crowd to go wild and celebrate their hero of the day in good old Swiss fashion way.
26-year-old Romain Detraz took his maiden world cup win at home in Arosa in 2016, which for sure marks a very special occasion to remember.
Unfortunately, Detraz will be missing this season, while he is recovering from a knee injury, he suffered followed by a crash in Idre (SWE), earlier this year.
We should probably mention Ryan Regez while we are looking at the Swiss athletes. The tall Swiss athlete finished second in the overall SX ranking last season. While he never ended up on the podium in Arosa, his performance increased tremendously from the moment he managed to grab his maiden win in Feldberg in 2019 and got on the podium again the following day, claiming third rank.
With four podiums last year, Regez proved that he is strong and definitely wants to be counted in for the battle for the overall title.
We are excited to see the first races of the season and you should be too!
Arosa title defenders from December 2019: Marielle Thompson (CAN) and Kevin Drury (CAN).
Qualifications for the first competition are going down on December 14 at 19:45 CET and finals are set for December 15 at prime time 20:15 CET.
The second race on December 16 will have a Pre-Heat Qualification in heats of four at 17:15 CET, followed by finals at 18:45 CET.
WATCH LIVE
Tuesday, Dec 15:
TV: Eurosport 2 (Europe), SLO 2 (Slovenia), SRF 2 (Switzerland)
Live streaming: ORF (Austria), cbcsports.ca (Canada), svtplay (Sweden), Peacock (USA), sportschau.de (Germany)
Wednesday, Dec 16:
TV: Eurosport 2 (Europe), SLO 2 (Slovenia), SVT 24 (Sweden), SRF 2 (Switzerland)
Live streaming: ORF (Austria), cbcsports.ca (Canada), Peacock (USA), sportschau.de (Germany)
QUICK LINKS:
)
)
