Waldner and Beier named joint FIS Cross Race Directors

Former ski cross athlete Klaus Waldner (AUT) has been appointed the new Cross Race Director, focusing on ski cross and sharing the position with Snowboard Cross Race Director Uwe Beier. From now on, Waldner and Beier will both carry the title of Race Directors Cross and decisions concerning both ski and snowboard Cross will be made together.

The Ski and Snowboard Cross Competition Management is rounded out with the continuity of highly experienced Christian Cretier (FRA) as FIS Assistant Race Director Ski Cross and Alberto Schiavon (ITA) as FIS Assistant Race Director Snowboard Cross.

A familiar face in the ski cross community

Waldner is a familiar face to the ski cross community, as he was a professional ski cross athlete himself from 2001/2002 until 2011/12. He was a member of the Austria Ski Team from 2007 until 2012. The Austrian counts 53 World Cup starts over the course of his career and two FIS Freestyle World Championships, in Madonna di Campiglio 2007 and in Deer Valley in 2011.

After he retired as professional athlete, Waldner qualified as a FIS Technical Delegate, as well as a Technical and Course Advisor at European and World Cup races. In 2018/19, Waldner was engaged to support the organisers of the first FIS and European Cup races in Georgia’s Bakuriani and Gudauri resorts, where he was appointed race director for those competitions. In 2019/20, he undertook the role of assistant race director for several European Cup races and proved his skills as race director at Continental Cup level.

A priority on Waldner’s agenda are the FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboard World Championships 2021 in Zhangjiakou, China. Since all previous test events for ski and snowboard cross in the Chinese resort were cancelled, it will be a major task to create the right team on site for the challenging work of course building and overall organisation of the WSC 2021 and the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games.

As long-term goals, Waldner says: “We want to get more young athletes into the ski and snowboard cross family, so we need to focus more on the races that are happening at European Cup and FIS level, furthermore we need to work on closing the gap between European Cup and World Cup competitions, especially on the women’s side.”

“Also, we want to establish classic cross races similar to Innichen/ San Candido (ITA) and develop new venues in North America and Far East, as we see a lot of potential in these regions for cross,” Waldner added.