Revenge on FIS

Zermatt bans athletes from summer training

As the FIS is planning to remove the Matterhorn downhill races from the calendar next winter, the ski stars will no longer have access to training slopes in Zermatt in the summer.

(Bild: GEPA pictures)

This retaliation is quite something: because the FIS is planning to remove the Matterhorn downhill races from the calendar next winter, the ski stars will no longer be provided with training slopes in Zermatt in the summer.

"Elite ski teams will no longer find any training slopes in Zermatt from this summer. The situation will be reassessed in a year's time," head of organization Franz Julen is quoted as saying in a press release from Zermatt Bergbahnen. This means that, unlike in previous years, the national teams will not be allowed to prepare for the ski season on the Matterhorn.

Instead, "a generous, adapted infrastructure with training times throughout the summer months will now be made available to the ski clubs' youngsters", according to the press release. 

All eight downhill races canceled
The measure is a clear retaliation for the decision by the FIS, which, together with Swiss-Ski and the Italian Ski Federation FISI (the finish of the Matterhorn downhill races is in Cervinia, Italy), had agreed to cancel the races. In the past two World Cup seasons, none of the eight planned runs could be held because the weather did not cooperate.

Of eight planned downhill races in the past two years, not a single one could take place.

(Bild: APA/KEYSTONE/JEAN-CHRISTOPHE BOTT)

As the Swiss newspaper "Blick" reports, the ski aces will now have to move to another continent in the summer because Zermatt is the only possibility in Europe to train the speed disciplines.