The FIS race director of the Men’s Alpine Skiing World Cup said on Saturday that a Slalom in Zagreb two days ago should not have been started, calling the decision-making process “unacceptable”.”
The race in Croatia was stopped after 19 skiers started on a muddy course that quickly go-down before becoming too peril to continue when holes appeared in the thin snow surface.
French skier Victor Muffat-Jeandet broke his right fibula while skiing. He will miss the Beijing Olympics, as he needs to have surgery, he said in an Instagram Post.
Markus Waldner, the race director of the International Ski Federation, who was not present on Thursday, told Austrian television: “You saw during the inspection that you can’t race there. There were 60 Riders at the start, but it worked for 10. You would do such a Race does not start, that’s all.”
Waldner was absent in the Croatian capital because he had already made it to the next stage of the Adelboden circuit, in Switzerland. He was replaced as race director at the event in Croatia by FIS official Emmanuel Couder.
The Slalom was interrupted several times when track workers tried to smooth holes in the surface of the weakened snow. Television footage showed that Couder was repeatedly talking with local organizers about continuing the race, although the event was finally stopped only after Waldner intervened by phone.
“But it was already too after, the race should never have started,” Waldner said, adding that Couder had been “heavily pressured” by local organizers to keep the race going.
“The way things have gone there is just not acceptable. There is no compromise. The referee, in this matter Emmanuel Couder, has the final word and the final decision.”
According to Waldner, the local organizers “took over a little bit, which was not right, and became aggressive and the whole process was not right.”
The race had been rescheduled from its original location on Wednesday, a day after the women competed in a giant slalom on the same track in difficult conditions.
“It was on the Limit. We could argue if we shouldn’t have held the race: there were more leaves on the slopes than snow,” Waldner said of the women’s race.
The race director said he would evaluate the men’s race next week with FIS management.
“We don’t take for granted what happened,” Waldner said. “Let’s see what we can do in the future. This way you can not conduct world Cup events. This is not an advertisement for our Sport. It’s implausible and finish the whole Sport.”
