The COVID-19 pandemic meant that the 2019/20 season had to be terminated prematurely on March 12, 2020. In order to be able to run the new season as smoothly as possible and to protect those involved from infection, the FIS and the responsible local organizers of the races took various preventive measures. At the beginning of August, the Austrian Ski Association announced that the traditional season opener on the Rettenbachferner near Sölden would be one week on the 17th / 18th. October is brought forward and only a few viewers would be allowed. This should enable the glacier area to be used largely exclusively for the World Cup races. This would also separate participants, officials and employees from tourists. Two weeks later, the announcement followed that the races would be held without any spectators.
On August 20, 2020, the FIS announced that all races in North America would be canceled due to the unsafe pandemic situation. This affects the races in Killington and Lake Louise for women and in Lake Louise and Beaver Creek for men. Instead, they are to be held in a few locations in Europe. The definitive racing program was not yet fixed at this point and was only announced on October 3rd. When designing the racing program, the FIS made sure that women and men on the one hand, and technicians and speed drivers on the other, are as separated from each other as possible. For this reason, there are no combination competitions .
The world association also published the FIS World Cup Risk Management Covid-19 Testing Protocol on August 20th . All people involved in the Ski World Cup are divided into four groups, which should remain self-contained. One group includes the racers with their supervisors and service people. The other three groups include FIS officials, representatives of the local organization (including volunteers) and accredited groups (media and sponsor representatives, technical staff). The races are to take place largely in camera. Since the beginning of August, routine doping tests have been used to determine whether the person examined already has antibodies against the virus and is therefore immune. Every racer must show a negative COVID-19 test before each race, taken 72 to 96 hours before arriving at the race location. All test results are collected in a central database that meets the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation . People who tested positive have to go into self-quarantine for a certain period of time .
Rule changes
Parallel competition: The knockout phase is limited to 16 participants and each duel is decided in two runs (one run on both sides of the racetrack). Before that, with the exception of the first lap, there was only one run each, which often meant that one side of the piste turned out to be faster and the racing drivers assigned accordingly had an advantage. With the new regulation, the races should be more balanced.
Lucas Braathen
Marco Odermatt
Marta Bassino
Petra Vlhová
