Alps Tour heralds new era of FIS Snowboard Alpine Junior Regional Cup competition

Talented young snowboard racers from some of Europe’s top nations are set to fight out the first FIS Snowboard Alpine Junior Regional Cup starting in December. The four-event series brings together athletes aged 14-18 predominantly from Austria, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and France. 

Known as the Alps Tour and now under the FIS umbrella, it replaces the old Junior Cup series and aims to raise the level of competition for teenage Snowboard Alpine hopefuls. At least 60 athletes per gender are expected to take part. 

The opening race is a parallel slalom in the German resort of Götschen on the weekend of 7-8 December. Next up is another parallel slalom in Samnaun, Switzerland on 18-19 January. The series ends with two parallel giant slaloms - in Villnöss, Italy from 15-16 February, and Haus im Ennstal in Austria on 29-30 March. 

Swiss Snowboard Alpine head coach Daniel Weis says, “I’m looking forward to a thrilling new cup series for our junior athletes. It will light the fire of snowboard racing at grassroots level and excite kids for snowboard alpine sport, not only in Switzerland but other countries from the Alps region. 

One objective of the FIS Junior Regional Cup is to reduce travel to competitions for athletes. "By focusing on regional events, we ensure greater participation and development in snowboard alpine racing," stresses Denis Giger, Chair of the Sub-Committee for Youth & Children's Questions. While racers from outside the five aforementioned countries can take part, the intention is that they will have their own series in the future. The Carpathian Mountains region, including nations such as Czechia, Slovakia, Poland and Romania, has already made a proposal for one next year with groupings in Scandinavia and East Asia also mooted. 

As well as new regions, the FIS Junior Regional Cup will also take on new disciplines with freestyle skiing, freestyle snowboarding and ski cross series in the pipeline. The overarching goal is to give athletes the chance to contest high-level FIS events at an earlier stage in their development, and help recruit youngsters to those sports.