The Austrian ski resort of Saalbach-Hinterglemm will host the world ski Championships in 2025. This decision was made with a significant majority of votes at the FIS online Congress.
Saalbach-Hinterglemm became the next host of the Alpine skiing world Cup at the second attempt. On Saturday evening, after a video conference of the FIS Board, the winner was announced. The SalzburgerLand resort Was among the clear favorites. 12 people voted for it, and one person each voted for the other two resorts.
In previous times the world Cup in Saalbach was held on the track “Zwölferkogel” in 1991. All competitions of the 2025 world Cup must be held there in 2025, so the application concept is again held under the slogan “One mountain-all races”. The resort is almost ready to host the world Cup (which was emphasized during the presentation). For example, a new state-of-the-art Zwölferkogel lift was recently built. Glemmtal (the valley where the resort is located) plans to invest between 40 and 50 million euros, primarily in infrastructure.
Saalbach’s competitors were Crans-Montana, Switzerland, and Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Two years ago, Saalbach lost to the French by a small margin – Courchevel and Meribel won the right to host the 2023 world Cup. Then it was quickly decided that Saalbach would qualify for the world Cup again, which is automatically considered a plus. In addition, since then, the resort has hosted the world Cup stages, and they have passed flawlessly.
A significant contribution to the decision was made by the President of the ÖSV (Austrian ski Union) Peter Recknagel. As you know, the 79-year-old Tyrolean wants to end his career on a high note – namely, to manage the 2025 world Cup. “He drives us, he’s our tactician,” said race Director Bartholomeus “Bartle” Gensbichler of Saalbach.
Schrexnadel is also a member of the FIS Board and voted for the Austrian resort. At the last vote, which took place in may 2018, 9 members of the Council voted for Meribel-Courchevel at the FIS Congress. The main contender for the title of host of the 2023 world Cup-the Austrian Association of resorts Saalbach-Hinterglemm then received only 6 votes. Two years ago, before the start of the FIS Congress, experts believed that the right to host the world Cup would be given to the Austrians.
The application of Saalbach represented the famous Austrian skiers like Michael Walchhofer and Alexander Meissnitzer. On the side of one of the competitors – Garmisch-Partenkirchen – was no less famous athlete – Maria Hoefl-Riesch. The Crans-Montana team of professional athletes was represented by Michelle GISIN.the Alpine skiing world Cup will be held in Austria from February 4 to 23, 2025.
The FIS meeting also approved the schedule of the Alpine skiing world Cup for the new season.
