Q + A with ski cross race director Klaus Waldner

We sat down with FIS race director Klaus Waldner to see what he had to say after his first two seasons as newly appointed race director for ski cross and after his first Olympic Winter Games experience.

FIS: What were some of your highlights of the Audi FIS Ski Cross World Cup season 2021/22, which saw 12 individual competitions and one mixed-team night event going down across three continents?

Klaus Waldner: _The first highlight for sure was the Olympic test event in China, not just because it was pretty difficult and extensive to organize it. In the end it turned out to work out well and everybody returned back home safely.

Furthermore, I cannot pick another highlight, because each competition in itself is a highlight. In Val Thorens for instance, we got 1 ½ meter of snow in 3 days and it was an incredible teamwork to make racing possible in the end._

Then, for sure the mixed-team event on the short course in Arosa was also pretty interesting.

Another highlight last season for sure was Sandra (Näslund)’s performance, where she won 11 races out of 12 and the fact that on the men’s side it was a super exciting battle until the very last race to see who will take home the globe and therefore it was a great World Cup season.

FIS: Were there any learnings from this season that you would take away and do differently at the next seasons moving ahead?

Klaus Waldner: Well, we learned that we have to be ready at any time for any circumstances that might appear. Be it heavy snowfall or troubles with the TV production, or Corona cases that cut the staff short. The most important thing that I am taking away is that we have a great team and within this team we are able to master everything, when everybody is working together.

FIS: Before the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, there was quite some scepticism, but in the end, what is your outlook on your first Olympics as the ski cross race director? And what is your biggest takeaway from that experience?

Klaus Waldner: Yeah, for sure there was a lot of scepticism ahead of the Olympics, but the test event was for us a huge step forward. Even though the test event was a lot of hard work from May until November last year, but we knew that the test event would be a milestone, so we put everything to it. And after the test event it was a benefit for all of us. The teams and athletes knew how the travel would look like and what to expect in terms of organizational steps, so that helped for sure.

And as a race director I learned that the Olympic Winter Games are much bigger than a World Cup race and that is not always easy to coordinate every step between all the stakeholders involved. I mean, in the end it is a race, but it’s a huge race and it’s also a showcase for the sport that  the whole world is looking at and where everyone wants to show the best of their sport and I think that we did a great job in ski cross and now onwards to the next four years.

Also…my biggest take-away is that I could now definitely work in a travel office, because I had so much work with organizing charter flights and travel schedules as well (laughs), but in the end this is also part of the job.

FIS: Is there anything that you are most looking for to next season?

Klaus Waldner: _So, next year as something brand new we will have a  season kick-off together with snowboard cross in Les Deux Alpes (FRA), probably at the first weekend of November. Then we will also have a new resort in the calendar in Italy’s Alleghe on December 28-29, which is awesome that we were able to become a race scheduled withing the Christmas holidays and close that gap where we did not have any TV exposure between Christmas and the New Year. So, we will have a couple of new resorts joining the long-serving ones.

Nevertheless, it is always a lot of work in preparing each of these races and we have to treat them as if they were on the calendar for the first time, simply to improve some steps and make them even better each year._

_Also, next season will be our first one where we will no longer be under the “Freestyle” umbrella and now we really have to show the sport to the world and make the best jobs possible in order to lead the way into a great ski cross future.

So, new venues, also Megeve (FRA) will be back next season, in total we will have a full calendar with 22 competitions. Never before did we have so many races in one season. So, it will be a tough season, but the preparations are going really well and it is looking very promising._

FIS: As they say “after the Olympics is before the Olympics”. What is your goal for this upcoming four-year cycle until Cortina/ Milano 2026 for ski cross?

Klaus Waldner: Our goal for the next years is to continue to raise the level of ski cross, to bring more athletes to the sport, to get more spectators to the sport by making ski cross even more viewer-friendly and attractive. Another goal is to have competitions in new countries, to win new markets. And for Cortina/ Milano 2026, the ski cross venue will be in Livigno, so we will for sure have test events there and work really hard to get the best track possible for the next major event.

Another goal is to invest as much as possible in the safety of the sport and to have as little injured athletes as possible. Also, we want to enlarge our ski cross team, also on the level of Europa Cup races and FIS races. We want to raise the standard and quality of events, so that we will ultimately have more competitors at the World Cup and maybe also more nations.

So, there is lots to do, but my team and I, we are highly motivated to work on all of these steps for the next four years.