Winter sports shrouded in uncertainty amid COVID-19 outbreak

THE CORONAVIRUS pandemic wreaked havoc with the end of the past season in many winter sports, but at the time there was hope that everything would have returned to normal for the start of the 2020-21 campaign.

These hopes have gone up in smoke as many events have already been canceled or relocated, with more likely to follow, and big crowds not even remotely possible, if fans are let in at all. The main effort at the moment is to stage events at all in sports ranging from alpine and Nordic skiing to sliding and skating. “You try not to think about the worst-case scenario that a whole season is canceled. We hope that our competitions can take place as usual,” German biathlete Denise Herrmann told German Press Agency (DPA).

Nordic combined skier Johannes Rydzek said that athletes were “ready for any kind of compromise because it is our livelihood.” COVID-19 cases are on the rise again in many countries as the start of the season approaches, with the alpine skiers the first out in midOctober at their traditional site of Soelden, Austria. The men’s and women’s giant slaloms there will take place behind closed doors, with everyone present split into four bubbles: athletes and coaches/officials, organizers, media and a few invited guests.

Austria’s Soelden will not see a big seasonopening party and neither will the classic Kitzbuhel races where normally 50,000 attend the legendary men’s downhill.

The traditional North American swing before Christmas has been scrapped, and there are plenty of doubts whether the world championships in Italy’s Cortina d’Ampezzo from Feb. 9 can really have an attendance of 5,000 per day, as currently foreseen.

The Nordic skiing worlds are to follow in Oberstdorf, Germany, which also hosts the Dec. 29 opener of ski jumping’s prestigious Four Hills tournament for which it is planning a small crowd of 2,500 – virus permitting. The other three hosts are yet to decide on attendance. Biathlon has, meanwhile, scrapped its early stops in Ostersund, Sweden, and Annecy, France, and will stage the first 22 races in Finland’s Kontiolahti and Austria’s Hochfilzen to reduce travel and possible infections.

“It is disappointing, but we have to accept that the changes of our original plans are absolutely necessary,” Olle Dahlin, president of the ruling body International Biathlon Union (IBU), said. Sliding has seen the bob and skeleton, as well as the luge world championships, moved from North America to Germany, with bob/skeleton in Altenberg instead of Lake Placid, and Konigssee the new luge venue instead of Whistler. Skaters must, meanwhile, swallow the cancellation of all important events until Christmas in figure skating, speed skating and short track.

The ruling body International Skating Union (ISU) also wants this season’s test events in China for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics postponed to a later date.

The same could apply in other winter sports, depending on the coronavirus situation which will likely lead to many more changes in the pre-Olympic season.