An improved track will be prepared for the racers at Chopok, 14 000 cubic metres of snow are already waiting at the finish line
The site visit inspected competition slope, where Slovak organizers presented all aspects of the track. The issues of the entire organization of both the main and accompanying events, questions regarding the broadcasting and television signal production, marketing, and other sport matters were equally important.
”We are very happy that the FIS representatives came here to Jasná. As we organized the World Cup in 2016, in this case it was mainly about already tried matters, but we also took over the new challenges that await us because of the coronavirus pandemic. We already have experience from organizing an event of this level, but we do not want to decline in quality. We would like to take the World Cup in Jasná to even higher level. We have the basics, now we will integrate some corrections after the FIS inspection,“ said the head of the organizing committee Matej Hulej.
FIS: We are looking forward to returning to Jasná
The FIS delegation was extremely satisfied with the conditions in Jasná. “I know the local competition hill very well, since I have been here in the past for the World Junior Championships or the European Cup. The hill is great and we are satisfied with it. We are happy that the World Cup will be held in Jasná again after five years. We considered it very important to come here in person because the contact with the organizers is very important. We are particularly interested in issues related to television broadcast, cameras positions, and we also pay attention to general security. Right after the track inspection we had a meeting where we went deeper and talked about what the expectations from upcoming season are. It is accompanied by several unanswered questions and uncertainties. We cannot tell what the situation will be in October or November, not talking about March,“ said the Chief Women’s Race Director Peter Gerdol from Slovenia.
The sporting world was significantly affected by the coronavirus in past months. The preparations for the World Cup had to be put on hold in spring, but currently they are in full swing. ”We have to watch the situation carefully. The pandemic made the situation much more difficult for us, but we do not want to leave anything to chance and we are preparing various possible scenarios for the organization of the World Cup. We would love to host the women’s world ski top at the full direction with the spectators next to the track, but we need to keep in mind that there is a possibility of some restrictions. It will depend on how the situation will develop. We are fully aware of how the event may change because of coronavirus,“ added Hulej. He also highlighted the cooperation between the organizers of the prestigious event and Slovak Ski Association (SSA).
“From SSA point of view, the results of the site visit are as expected, everything was alright. I think that the cooperation of the organizing committee and Slovak Ski Association is great. Unfortunately, due to the coronavirus situation we had to cancel the summer Grass Skiing World Cup and Roller Ski World Cup. Therefor I firmly believe that the World Cup in Jasná will not be endangered. We will do everything to make the FIS representatives satisfied with the organization of the upcoming World Cup and we could ask for another events in Slovakia,“ said the SSA vicepresident Marino Mersich.
News on the track
Chief of race Jana Palovičová is also satisfied with the site visit. “We are happy that we included so many people and everything turned out fine. The FIS representatives are satisfied and that is important. The most difficult thing is to secure security and cameras positions. We want more vivid transmission to show the difficulty and beauty of our track. We have more scenarios about the fans and also backup plans that will apply according to current coronavirus situation. We have a positive attitude,“ said Palovičová on Thursday briefing on the slope.
Compared to 2016, the organizers are preparing a few changes on the competition track.
”We would like to make it more interesting thanks to more uneven terrain. This regards the upper part, where the track is compact and a small change of rhythm due to the unevenness will make the race more dynamic. We did not manage to do so in 2016 but I believe that this time we will succeed,“ said Martin Kupčo, the chief of World Cup course. He added another interesting thing. ”Since we finished last season earlier, we managed to pile up enough snow in the finish line area. We have about 14 000 cubic metres of snow. We need to eliminate the slope diversion at its lower edge, and for that we need four to five meters of snow. This way we have a pre-supply that we will use for that.“
New function of covid-manager
In connection with mentioned circumstances, the hosts of the World Cup in Jasná have decided to include in the organizing committee an expert who will closely watch the situation around coronavirus and all matters connected with it. ”A covid-manager will be a part of the organizing committee, he will communicate with authorities, FIS, and will watch the situation development from all sides. The core of the organizing committee consists from people who participated on World Cup 2016 organization, but we are currently adding more people to the team,“ said Head of media and communication Michaela Grendelová.
She informed also about other matters related to the world class event that ski resort Jasná will host in March 2021. ”We are fine-tuning the visual and entire marketing presentation that we will present soon. With FIS we discussed the broadcasting, which will bring pictures from Jasná to the whole world,“ continued Grendelová and added: ”We believe that the situation will allow us to organize the event fully so the people will be able to enjoy it directly at the slope in Jasná just like in 2016. If there will be different conditions, we will prepare live streams from accompanying events, such as the Bib draw.“
In the first half of March 2016, Jasná hosted first Alpine Skiing World Cup in Slovakia after 30 years. The very successful event was attended by thousands of fans who in person watched performances of Petra Vlhová, American star Mikaela Shiffrin or Veronika Velez-Zuzulová, who waved goodbye to Slovak fans by third place in slalom and two years later definitely finished her competition career.
Media contact:
Michaela Grendelová
Mail: grendelova@sprmedia.eu
Mob: +421-911-101-801
