Financial downturn hits World Cup skiers

SOELDEN, Austria (AP)—The World Cup circuit felt the pinch of the international financial downturn this summer when ski manufacturers decided not to pay for their technicians to travel to offseason training camps in the southern hemisphere.

The decision left national federations scrambling to find last-minute funding.

The powerful Austrian federation forced its athletes to provide part of the funding themselves, while the United States Ski and Snowboard Association covered all of the expenses despite across the board budget cuts over the last year.

“We spend a good amount of time in both short- and long-term planning and we saw this coming,” USSA president Bill Marolt said. “That was a high-priority item for us.”

Austria Alpine director Hans Pum said his federation paid for the equipment, while athletes had to take care of the funding for travel and accommodation for their ski men.

In May, Rossignol asked its skiers to accept a 50 percent cut in their endorsement deals, causing two-time defending overall World Cup champion Lindsey Vonn of the United States to switch to Head.

Sales have also decreased for Head, which has reported a $25.5 million loss in the first half of 2009.

Atomic, which supplies men’s defending overall winner Aksel Lund Svindal, scrapped its preseason presentation at the World Cup kickoff at this Austrian glacier.

EUROS: The newly created European Ski Federation is planning to hold a slalom championship on an indoor course in Amneville, France, on Nov. 7, and the international federation is not pleased.

“FIS does not recognize it in any way. FIS only recognizes national associations as members,” International Ski Federation (FIS) president Gian-Franco Kasper said. “It does not have anything to do with us, but we will discuss it because our athletes are not allowed to go to any event not on our calendar.”

The European federation is led by Kasper’s longtime rival, Peter Schroecksnadel, the president of the Austrian ski federation. Besides Austria, the European organization’s core members are Switzerland, Italy and France.

Russia and Sweden could also race in Amneville, Austria Alpine director Hans Pum suggested, adding that Kasper keeps changing his mind on whether the skiers can compete or not.

While Kasper acknowledged that global warming will threaten the future of skiing, he is opposed to moving the sport indoors.

“I don’t think skiing will survive if it’s only indoors,” Kasper said. “When people think about skiing they think about the sun and blue skies. The future cannot be indoor skiing.”

Kasper is excited about a FIS promotional event in Moscow on Nov. 21. For the second consecutive year, top racers will compete on an artificial course built in the Russian capital to build awareness for the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Women are competing for the first time.

WOMEN’S SKI JUMPING: Women’s ski jumping needs to develop more at lower levels before it becomes an Olympic sport, according to FIS president Gian-Franco Kasper.

“They didn’t want it for Vancouver purely for technical reasons. We need to respect the sports pyramid and start in the regional associations and continental associations before we get to the top, which is the Olympic Games,” Kasper said Friday at a FIS forum ahead of the start of the Alpine season.

In August, a group of 14 women ski jumpers appealed a court decision that prevents them from competing at the 2010 Games. The women filed their argument in British Columbia Court of Appeal, claiming that the organizers of the Vancouver Games must abide by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

A three-judge panel will hear the appeal arguments in Vancouver on Nov. 12-13.

Ski jumping and Nordic combined, which comprises ski jumping and cross country skiing, are the only Winter Olympic sports that don’t include women.

“We’re hoping that ladies ski jumping will be developed enough for the 2014 Sochi Games,” Kasper said, adding that the IOC will decide in 2010 or 2011. “It’s not a new sport, it’s just a new event in an existing discipline.”