World Series of Skiing
The World Series of Skiing was a series of international competitions in different formats in alpine skiing .
Beginnings
The first races under this name took place on the initiative of the US national coach Bob Beattie in March 1965 in Vail , Colorado . The aim was to enable the US and Canadian teams to compete against the top European drivers. In order to generate the greatest possible interest among the television companies, only skiers from nations that had won medals at the 1964 Olympic Games were invited : France, Austria and the USA. When the Alpine Ski World Cup was launched in 1967 , the World Series was a competition in which five nations participated and which was held parallel to the World Cup.
Resumption 1973/74
Since not a single World Cup race took place on American soil in the 1973/74 season , the Fédération Internationale de Ski decided to organize team competitions after the end of the season. The American Hank Tauber was given the task of organizing the races in early 1973, which took place over three weekends in March 1974 in Collingwood , Ontario (March 14-17 , 1974), Sugarloaf , Maine (March 20-23, 1974) and Heavenly Valley in California (March 26-30, 1974). Races in slalom, downhill, giant slalom and parallel slalom were planned, with teams of 14 participants each (7 women and 7 men) from seven nations (USA, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Austria and Switzerland) as well as a team consisting of Skiers of smaller ski nations (Australia, Belgium, Liechtenstein, San Marino) should be contested. After all, France only competed with a women's team.
Due to the weather conditions, the first two race weekends had to be relocated to Aspen and Vail in the state of Colorado . The giant slalom in Heavenly Valley could not take place as planned because of the weather, so the men's competition was held a few days later on Mount Rose in Nevada , while the women's giant slalom was completely canceled. In total, the Nations' World Series of Skiing in 1974 consisted of seven men's races (two slaloms and a parallel slalom in Aspen, a downhill and a parallel slalom in Vail, a giant slalom in Mount Rose and a parallel slalom in Heavenly Valley) and six women's races (two slaloms and a parallel slalom in Aspen, a downhill and a parallel slalom in Vail and a parallel slalom in Heavenly Valley). The winner was the Austrian team with a lead of 154 points, ahead of Italy, Germany and the USA. Canada and Switzerland tied for fifth place, the international team was only penultimate, despite the individual victories of Manfred Grabler (Australia) in the downhill and Willi Frommelt (Liechtenstein) in the parallel slalom in Vail, while France and half their team came in last. The other winners of the individual races included Geoff Bruce (USA), who won the opening slalom, and Gustav Thöni (Italy), who won the remaining four races. He won both the second slalom in Aspen and the giant slalom as well as two parallel slaloms. In the women's category, Annemarie Moser-Pröll (Austria) was the most successful individual participant with four wins (two in slalom and two in parallel slalom). In addition, her compatriots Monika Kaserer won the Aspen parallel slalom and Ingrid Eberle won the women's downhill.
Other Events
In the 1976/77 season, Liechtenstein, Sweden and Czechoslovakia were joined by three other nations. In the competitions that took place in Aprica (slalom), Bormio (giant slalom) and St. Moritz (parallel slalom) from November 30th to December 5th, 1976 before the start of the World Cup , Italy (92 points) won ahead of Switzerland (72 points ), France and Czechoslovakia (42 points each), Liechtenstein (41 points), Sweden (36 points), Austria and the USA (35 points each), Germany (20 points) and Canada (6 points). The individual winners included Ingemar Stenmark (Sweden) in the slalom and giant slalom and Walter Tresch (Switzerland) in the men's parallel slalom, as well as Lise-Marie Morerod (Switzerland) in the slalom and parallel slalom and Claudia Giordani (Italy) in the women's giant slalom.
In the 1980s, at the end of November, there were almost every year competitions called the World Series , which consisted of different formats (parallel slalom, giant slalom and the "usual" slalom, even a downhill run) and were only part of the Nations Cup .
Individual evidence
- ↑ 1963 - World Series of Skiing Comes to Vail , accessed on April 17, 2017 (English).
- ^ Serge Lang : How the World Cup Began , Skiing Heritage Journal, September 2008
- ↑ Skiing November 1973 , Volume 26, No. 3, accessed on April 17, 2017 (English)
- ↑ Skiing December 1973 , Volume 26, No. 4, accessed April 17, 2017 (English)
- ↑ Skiing September 1974 , Volume 27, No. 1, accessed on April 18, 2017 (English)
- ↑ Frommelt drove Thöni away in the final , accessed on April 19, 2017
- ^ "My husband liked it" , accessed April 19, 2017
- ↑ Ski circus is now whizzing to Vail , accessed April 19, 2017
- ↑ Sensation on the women's run , accessed on April 19, 2017
- ↑ Trainer Kahr explains: “Need two years” , accessed on April 18, 2017
- ↑ Who else but Stenmark? , accessed April 18, 2017
- ↑ Tresch stopped Stenmark! , accessed April 17, 2017
- ↑ Only Sölkner escaped debacle , accessed on April 17, 2017
- ^ Sölkner up to the semifinals , accessed on April 17, 2017
- ↑ Giordani's lead was enough , accessed on April 18, 2017
- ^ Workers' newspaper Vienna.