Many downhill competitions have been canceled in the Alpine Skiing World Cup this season. The president of the Swiss Ski Association sees many reasons for the greatness of the sport. He is also worried about injuries.
Finnish alpine skiing sensation Elian Lehton the breakthrough season has taken on an unfortunate aspect for Finns, when men’s diving competitions have been canceled again in the World Cup.
Two downhill competitions in Chamonix, France, were canceled from the coming weekend. So, five diving competitions have already been canceled this season. Two of these have been able to be relocated: one Beaver Creek race and one Zermatt race.
The races in Chamonix were canceled due to warm weather and poor snow conditions. No replacements were found for the Chamonix races.
In total, seven World Cup competitions have been contested in men’s downhill this season, and three have been definitively cancelled.
At Beaver Creek, races were canceled due to heavy snow and high winds. The race in Zermatt was also bad because of the strong wind.
Switzerland is the powerhouse of alpine skiing. The president of the country’s skiing association is the 1993 downhill world champion Urs Lehmann.
Lehmann commented to Urheilu about the rough situation before the news about the cancellation of the Chamonix Games. Overall, the first season of the alpine skiing world cup was difficult for the men. Seven of the nine races had to be cancelled.
Lehmann, who also serves as a board member of the international skiing federation FIS, sees that there are many reasons for cancellations. For example, he raises the traditional World Cup location Beaver Creek.
– Such a thing has never been experienced there. Beaver Creek had enough snow. It was just bad weather. Maybe it’s just climate change. I can’t say about that, Lehmann described.
It is also difficult to find replacement places for canceled games. Lehmann is aware of the difficulty of the situation.
– Will this become normal? I do not know yet. If this continues in the same way, we have to change the system, Lehmann said and reminded that this season it can only be bad luck.
There is only one more downhill competition left in the World Cup in Kvitfjell, Norway in mid-February before the World Cup finals in Saalbach in mid-March. The season’s best 25 in the diving cup can go to the final event held in Austria. Lehto is currently 23rd.
The amount of injuries is worrying
Another big topic of conversation has been injuries. The most recent headlines raised the American superstar Mikaela Shiffrin injury on Friday in the Cortina downhill, in the 2026 Olympic landscape.
Several athletes fell and were injured in the steeplechase in Wengen. Shiffrin’s boyfriend Alexander Aamodt Kilde suffered severe injuries, for example. Also by Alexis Pinturault and by Marco Kohler seasons ended with injuries in Wengen.
– This trend worries me a lot. Now there are too many outings and injuries. We have to do something. First, however, you have to understand what has happened. We’ve always had a lot of injuries, but never this many. You have to understand why there have been more injuries. Is it snow conditions, materials or bad luck? Lehmann pondered.
The Swiss boss says he has his own theory. However, he does not want to make it public until he has discussed the matter internally. However, the chairman of the alpine skiing powerhouse says one thing.
– In my opinion, we need to think about how we build downhill slopes. For example, jumps, Lehmann points out.