A look at the program for the 2025 World Ski Championships in Saalbach shows: The controversial parallel races are back. The FIS had actually given up on the heavily criticized discipline, but is now making a U-turn.
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- The Ski World Championships will take place in Saalbach in February 2025. The program also includes a team parallel race. This controversial discipline was actually abandoned by the FIS.
- The World Ski Federation is now saying that the parallel races are a "great event" and that the feedback from athletes has been positive.
- However, some say that the real reasons for the return of the parallel races are different.
The parallel races mainly caused one thing in the ski circus: a lot of trouble. The competition, in which skiers race 1 against 1 in parallel, was regularly criticized. Experience has shown that it was not possible to set two identical, equally fast courses. As a result, many races became a farce, and whoever had the better course in the decisive round had a clear advantage. Further criticism arose when a number of injuries, some of them serious, occurred during the parallel races.
The headwind was so strong that FIS Secretary General Michel Vion drew a line in the sand and told RTS: "We are giving up the parallel races. They were boycotted from the start by the big countries - including Switzerland - who didn't want these races. Now we have found this radical solution, which is a shame."
However, the decision was apparently not quite final. Because when you look at the program for the 2025 World Ski Championships in Saalbach, you can see that a parallel team competition is scheduled for 4 February 2025, the day of the opening ceremony. Although there are no individual races on the program, the athletes will once again compete as a team on the parallel course. This is despite the fact that the parallel races in the World Cup no longer exist. The importance of the races can also be seen when looking at the winners of the last parallel races in 2022: Andreja Slokar in the women's event and Christian Hirschbühl in the men's event.
FIS speaks of positive feedback
Vion explains in Blick that the team event at the 2023 World Championships in Courchevel/Méribel was a complete success: the races were well organized, aroused great interest and ensured high viewing figures. There was also positive feedback from the athletes. "That's why we decided to keep it for Saalbach," says Vion. The "great format" is now even to be included in the Olympic program again, it is suddenly said.
However, "Blick" is speculating about another reason why the World Championships will be held side by side again. An insider is said to have revealed that the FIS has contractually guaranteed marketer Infront eleven races for Saalbach. However, with the classic disciplines of downhill, super-G, giant slalom and slalom in both genders, there will only be eight races. In addition, there is one race each for women and men in the newly created team combination and the eleventh race, the parallel team event.
However, it is not only the parallel races that are controversial, but also the newly created team combination, which has so far only been tested at the Junior World Championships. One speed and one slalom racer from the same nation each race in one run - the times are then added together. It sounds simple, but it's not quite thought through to the end, which is why there has been criticism from top skiers from smaller ski nations such as AJ Ginnis (Greece) and Petra Vlhova (Slovakia). Both lack competitive partners. Marcel Hirscher, who now skis for the Netherlands, and Lucas Braathen (recently for Brazil) are also unlikely to find team-mates suitable for the World Championships.
