By the way...

Alpine mathematics

The World Ski Championships in Saalbach-Hinterglemm come to an end today.

(Bild: GEPA/GEPA pictures)

In the latest edition of his column "Oh, by the way...", "Krone Vorarlberg" author Harald Petermichl has ventured into the mountains and focused on the "Zwölfer". Including the one on which the Ski World Championships are coming to an end today. 

There are plenty of mountains in the Alps whose names begin with "Zwölfer" or "Mittag" because they and the sun can be used to determine the "true noon". While various Mittagsspitzen dominate in Vorarlberg, names such as Zwölferspitze or Zwölferkofel are preferred elsewhere. Or Zwölferkogel, as thirteen peaks in the Austrian Alps bear this name. One of them can be reached by cable car from Saalbach-Hinterglemm and has been the focus of sporting interest in recent days because the Alpine World Ski Championships were held on it according to the motto "One mountain - eleven races - one goal", which ends today with the men's slalom and the closing ceremony. According to the organizers, it was "the most relaxed World Championships of all time", which seems to have been written off by FIFA.

Many people watched the World Championships on one of the Zwölferkogel peaks.

(Bild: EPA)

For the first time, a new competition was held with the team combination and the previous combination was eliminated. However, for those interested in mathematics at least, this was no longer the yellow of the egg anyway, because since 1994 the times from the downhill and slalom were simply added together to determine the top finishers. Totally unimaginative, because it used to be much more challenging when the results list was constantly changing during the race without you immediately knowing why. It was an extremely simple mode: you simply had to divide your own time (A) by that of the current leader(s) (B), subtract the number 1 from the result and multiply this result by 570 (slalom) or 1,070 (downhill) to get a score. And whoever had the fewest points could collect a trophy from the race organizers. For example, if you were fastest in the slalom (A:B=1), the equation (1-1)x570=0 and therefore the perfect partial result of zero points. Beguilingly simple.

But well, times have changed since 1928, when the first combined competitions were held at the premiere of the Arlberg-Kandahar races with victories by Lisbeth Polland and Benno Leubner. After all, the four-man combined, consisting of downhill, slalom, ski jumping and cross-country skiing, which was sometimes held for men in the 1930s, no longer exists and who knows what it's good for. In any case, up until today's final day of the World Championships in Saalbach, there have been no requests for this and it will probably stay that way until the 2027 World Championships in Crans-Montana.