Cross-country skiing world cup in Dresden

Start and finish area with VIP tent

The FIS Cross-Country Skiing Sprint World Cup Dresden has been part of the FIS Cross-Country Skiing World Cups since the 2017/18 season . It is awarded by the International Ski Federation (FIS) and should take place in Dresden until at least 2022. It is a so-called city sprint. The athletes sprint on a 650 meter long slope.

history

The TV presenters and Dresden-based René Kindermann and Torsten Püschel developed the idea of having a cross-country sprint competition in front of the backdrop of Dresden's old town, right on the so-called Königsufer. The background was to operate positive location marketing for the touristically important "state capital Dresden" with the help of the sporting event. The city of Dresden endorsed the idea so that the Dresden city council submitted an application to the International Ski Association to host the event. The first cross-country skiing world cup should actually take place in Dresden in 2019. However, since the Czech Nové Město , which was scheduled for the Sprint World Cup in 2018, had financial difficulties, Dresden slipped into the event calendar in 2018. On May 28, 2017, at a conference in Slovenia, the latter decided that Dresden would be allowed to host a cross-country skiing world cup for the first time in January 2018.

On January 13th and 14th, 2018, the FIS Cross Country Sprint World Cup Dresden took place for the first time on the banks of the Dresden Elbe. The route was then 1.2 kilometers long and had to be run through once. The start and finish were in the so-called robotron ski arena, a natural stone grandstand. There was also a large VIP area.

A total of 25,000 visitors were recorded on the 2018 World Cup weekend. Over 120 journalists from all over the world reported on the World Cup. He is said to have been persecuted by 53.5 million people across Europe.

The World Cup course was used for a total of 10 days after the competition. During the week, Saxon primary school students in grades 1-2 were allowed to do school sports on the route and were looked after by Olympic medal winner Tobias Angerer . In addition, inclusion events and competitions for young talent, such as the International Sachsencup or the Junior City Biathlon, a competition with laser rifles, took place on the route.

The costs for the Ski World Cup 2018 were estimated at 1.2 million euros. The organizers were supported with 300,000 euros each from the marketing budget of the City of Dresden and 300,000 euros from the Free State of Saxony. The latter consists of 150,000 euros each from the So geht sächsisch campaign and from the state's sports funding.

After the first cross-country skiing Sprint World Cup Dresden, the Dresden city council had to vote on a further direction for the event. This finally happened on August 30, 2018. The groups of the Greens and Left voted against. At the same time, the city promised to support the event until at least 2022.

The second edition of the Dresden Ski World Cup took place on January 12 and 13, 2019. The route was shortened to around 800 meters and covered twice. In addition, the route was made more demanding due to bumps and the ascent to the so-called "Mount Dresden". The re-use of the route over 10 days remained the same. In addition, there was a company run on skis, the so-called Sparkassen-Brettl-Cup.

The VIP hospitality area was also retained for 10 days beyond the World Cup weekend and was available to companies for events and congresses.

On March 27, 2019, the organizing committee announced in the presence of the competition director Georg Zipfel and FIS Marketing Director Jürg Capol that the route for the third FIS Cross-Country Sprint World Cup 2020 would be shortened again due to the requirements of the International Ski Association. One lap is therefore 650 meters, the distance is run twice. For 2020, 150,000 euros will again come from sports funding from the Saxon State Ministry of the Interior.

Significance for the city of Dresden

In addition to sporting success, the aim of the cross-country skiing Sprint World Cup Dresden is to achieve positive location marketing for the state capital Dresden. In 2018, Media Monitoring GmbH ValueMedia evaluated the advertising equivalence values for the main supporters, i.e. the city of Dresden and the Free State of Saxony. The advertising equivalence value should indicate how much the brand "Dresden" or "Sachsen" would have to pay for classic advertising in order to achieve the same advertising duration as with sports sponsorship.

In 2019, the "Dresden Embassy" ran for 14 ½ hours (14h 31m 30s) on classic TV screens and is said to have achieved an advertising equivalent value of € 5,547,724. Compared to the previous year, an increase of 74.3 percent (comparison 2018: 13h 09m 20s // € 3,181,878). The same applies to the "Embassy of Saxony", which ran for a total of 7h 50m 45s. That would correspond to an advertising equivalent value of € 3,101,051. (Comparison 2018: 6h 35m 52s // 1,404,176 €).

Environmental aspect

Ski World Cup on January 14, 2018 on the banks of the Elbe in Dresden

4,000 cubic meters of snow are produced for the Dresden Ski World Cup using snow production systems, so-called snow factories. In addition, there is snow that is obtained from the abrasion of ice from the EnergieVerbund Arena , an ice rink. In addition, ten large truck loads were procured from the Ore Mountains.

The left parliamentary group leader in the Saxon state parliament André Schollbach criticizes the enormous amount of energy required to produce, store and transport the artificial snow across the city. He is also of the opinion that the € 700,000 state funding could be better invested.

Those responsible publish on their website how they want to organize their ski event in an environmentally conscious manner. This includes free travel by bus and train, which is integrated in the ticket, but also the short distances from the World Cup hotel and athletes' village to routes that do not require a shuttle. Compared to World Cups in mountain regions, significantly less CO ₂ should be used in relation to the transfer of athletes and guests .

Results

Women

Edition	season	discipline	winner	Second	Third
01	2017/18	Sprint freestyle	Sweden Hanna Falk	Sweden Maja Dahlqvist	United States Sophie Caldwell
01	2017/18	Team sprint	Sweden Sweden II Ida Ingemarsdotter Maja Dahlqvist	Sweden Sweden I. Hanna Falk Stina Nilsson	United States United States I. Ida Sargent Sophie Caldwell
02	2018/19	Sprint freestyle	Sweden Stina Nilsson	Sweden Maja Dahlqvist	Sweden Jonna Sundling
02	2018/19	Team sprint	Sweden Sweden I. Stina Nilsson Maja Dahlqvist	Sweden Sweden II Ida Ingemarsdotter Jonna Sundling	Norway Norway I. Mari Eide Maiken Caspersen Falla
03	2019/20	Sprint freestyle	Sweden Linn Svahn	Slovenia Anamarija Lampič	Sweden Maja Dahlqvist
03	2019/20	Team sprint	Sweden Sweden I. Maja Dahlqvist Linn Svahn	Switzerland Switzerland I. Laurien van der Graaff Nadine Fähndrich	Sweden Sweden II Evelina Settlin Linn Sömskar

Sprint 2018 winner: Hanna Falk
Team sprint winners 2018: Ida Ingemarsdotter and Maja Dahlqvist

Men

Edition	season	discipline	winner	Second	Third
01	2017/18	Sprint freestyle	Italy Federico Pellegrino	Norway Johannes Høsflot Klæbo	France Lucas Chanavat
01	2017/18	Team sprint	Italy Italy I Dietmar Nöckler Federico Pellegrino	Sweden Sweden I. Emil Jönsson Teodor Peterson	Russia Russia I. Andrei Krasnov Gleb Retiwych
02	2018/19	Sprint freestyle	Norway Sindre Bjørnestad Skar	Russia Gleb Retiwych	Norway Erik Valnes
02	2018/19	Team sprint	Norway Norway I. Erik Valnes Sindre Bjørnestad Skar	Norway Norway II Pål Golberg Eirik Brandsdal	Russia Russia I. Artyom Malzew Gleb Retiwych
03	2019/20	Sprint freestyle	France Lucas Chanavat	Norway Sindre Bjørnestad Skar	Sweden Johan Häggström
03	2019/20	Team sprint	France France I. Renaud Jay Lucas Chanavat	Sweden Sweden I. Marcus Grate Johan Häggström	Russia Russia I. Andrei Krasnov Gleb Retiwych