Ski-Alpin: WM 2023 not in Saalbach

Saalbach was left empty handed at the awarding of the Alpine World Ski Championships 2023. At its 51st Congress on Thursday in Costa Navarino, Greece, the FIS awarded the title to Courchevel-Meribel, which means that Alpine World Championship medals will be awarded in France for the first time since 2009. Austria, on the other hand, still has to wait for the first World Ski Championships since Schladming in 2013.

The vote in the FIS board ended with 9:6 for Courchevel-Meribel. Nevertheless, Saalbach will also strive for the 2025 title fights and have a good chance of winning. “As far as we’re concerned, we won’t give up. The next award is for 2025 and we will take it to Saalbach,” Bartl Gensbichler, President of the Salzburg Skiing Association, was quoted in an ÖSV broadcast.

We put a lot of work and heart and soul into the application to be able to hold another World Cup in 2023 after a long break. We know that we have the know-how for this. With Courchevel-Meribel, however, we had a very strong competitor. We keep our fingers crossed for our colleagues from France for the World Cup and will certainly be there ourselves,” said Gensbichler.

ÖSV President Peter Schröcksnadel saw the defeat in the vote as pragmatic. “The reason for this, as I could see from the comments of my board members, was that since 2013 Austria has been awarded five FIS World Championships alone: the Alpine World Championships in Schladming (2013), the Freestyle World Championships in Kreischberg (2015), the Ski Flying World Championships in Kulm (2016), the Grasski World Championships in Kaprun (2017), the Biathlon World Championships in Hochfilzen (2017) and the upcoming Nordic World Championships in Seefeld (2019). The fact that Saalbach’s application received many sympathies makes us approach the application for 2025 with corresponding optimism,” explained the Tyrolean.

Saalbach’s mayor Alois Hasenauer was also relaxed: “Of course it is a pity that we are not yet allowed to host the 2023 World Cup, but at the same time we wish our competitors all the best for their event. But giving up is out of the question for us. We will continue where we stand and prepare for the award in Marrakech 2020. We are very optimistic that a World Cup will take place in Austria in the next few years – hopefully in Saalbach Hinterglemm in 2025”.

On 9 July 2015, the ÖSV President’s Conference decided in favour of Saalbach as candidate for the 2023 World Championships, the Salzburg ski resort had been given preference over St. Anton am Arlberg. Saalbach-Hinterglemm had already hosted the World Cup in 1991. In May 2017 it was clear that Saalbach would have to deal with Courchevel-Meribel in the award process. The 2019 World Cup will take place in Aare (Sweden), followed by Cortina d’Ampezzo (Italy) in 2021.