Catching Up with the FIS World Cup

I’m glad the BBC’s Ski Sunday is back again this year. It’s made following the FIS World Cup far easier this season, as I prepare to look for ski deals. I thought I’d do a quick recap of everything that’s happened so far, since it’s nearly over for this year and these last few weeks should be the most exciting yet! Read part two here.

October

• The games slid into action in the resort of Sölden in Austria on October 27th 2007. After last year’s terrible weather and as such a late start to the games, it was a worry how things would go this time around. Fortunately, everything went ahead as planned with the snow falling nice and early. The Ladies’ Giant Slalom set things off without a hitch and Italy’s Denise Karbon took the opening win.
• America’s Bode Miller, who was highly expected to run away with many events, was left at an uncharacteristic 17th after the first round, but soon managed to climb back up to 5th with some excellent second and third runs.

November

• Marc Gini made a career best result by taking first in the Men’s Slalom in Reiteralm, Austria. Amazingly, the top six were all from different nations. The event was originally due to be hosted in Levi, Finland, but sadly the early snow never quite made it over there and conditions were too poor.
• Daniel Albrecht made impressive wins in the Men’s Super-Combined and Giant Slalom at Beaver Creek as the World Cup entered December, with fellow Swiss Didier Cuche lurking behind him with his third 3rd place of the events. In the Ladies’ Super-G, Swiss Martina Schild was also picking up a win, leaving the Swiss with an excellent set of runs in America.

December

• Aspen hadn’t held a Women’s Downhill for 20 years, but finally it returned to the slopes. It almost didn’t happen after heavy snowfall on December 7th, but it was delayed until the next day where Britt Janyk of Canada happily took the win.
• Back in Davos, Switzerland, two exciting Cross Country races were unfolding. Virpi Kuitunen of Finland made an incredible comeback in the Ladies’, beating Norway’s Vibeke Skofterud by 10.9 seconds. The Men’s race was even more intense with Germany’s Alex Teichmann gaining his second pole of the World Cup so far, following a race that went right to the finish.
• Austrian Thomas Morgenstern took an incredible record fifth pole in the Ski Jumping event in Villach, Austria, showing just how ahead of the rest of the pack he is.
• In the Snowboarding, surprise was afoot with 22 year old Manuel Veith of Schladming winning a remarkable race which went right down to the last split second. He managed to catch a gap of some 28 hundredths of a second at the very end of the Parallel Giant Slalom, stunning onlookers in Limone.
• At Rybinsk in Russia, Norway’s best picked up three wins out of four in the Cross-Country after Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen, Tor Arne Hetland and Anders Gløersen stored the opposition to take victory.
• Jacqui Cooper (of Australia) and Steve Omischl (of Canada) were the winners of the opening Freestyle events on December 23rd in Changchun, China. Both athletes kept the leaders’ bib since they were also the winners from last year.
• In the Bulgarian capital of Sophia, Stefan Gimpl of Austria trounced the opposition with some stunning tricks in the third of six Big Air competitions. Gimpl landed a near perfect Cab 10, ending up just one point off the best possible score of 30.
• The highlight of the season so far for the Cross Country was the Tour de Ski in which Czech Lukas Bauer took away the win with five very impressive stages to beat Norwegian Tord Arle Gjerdalen (second) and Italian Pietro Piller Cottrer (Third). The Ladies’ were equally as exciting with Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla surprising the crowds as she took the lead from under the noses of Virpi Kuitunen (Finland) and Marit Bjoergen (Norway).
• The year ended in Lienz for the Ladies’ events with the Giant Slalom and Slalom races. Italy took a double victory with Denise Karbon and Chiara Costazza. And it was in Italy where the Men’s events were ending the year, though it was America’s Bode Miller who took the win there and started his big comeback in the traditional New Year’s downhill in Bormio.

January

• Twenty year old Swede Charlotte Kalla grasped the Tour de Ski victory after and exciting last kilometre in the Ladies’ final. In the Men’s Lukas Bauer cruised to gold almost an entire minute ahead of the competition.
• The first ski cross event of the season in the Freestyle FIS World Cup was held in Les Contamines, France. Czech Tomas Kraus held out America’s Casey Puckett to success, while in the Ladies’ Ophelie David of France grabbed her 8th World Cup victory.
• The half-pipe round for the Freestyle World Cup began also in Les Contamines. A great crowd gathered for the night time finals, with Canadians Sarah Burke and Matthew Hayward snatching the golds.
• In Austria’s Bad Gastein, Lindsey Jacobellis (America) and Mario Fuchs (Austria) took the honours during the season’s third Snowboard cross.
• Norwegian Tom Hilde managed a second victory in the Ski Jumping event, overtaking Thomas Morgenstern, whose strong early season had been keeping him afloat at the top on the points board.
• In the Snowboard Giant Slalom, Nicolien Sauerbreij (Netherlands) prevented an all Austrian podium by grabbing first place from Claudia Riegler in the ladies’. While in the men’s, Andreas Prommegger (Austria) took his first every World Cup victory. In the last Parallel Slalom of the season, Heidi Neururer (Austria) and Rok Flander (Slovenia) collected their well-deserved wins.
• Unsuitable weather left the World Cup Ski Flying delayed a day, but once it got going, it turned into a tremendous and exciting round with Janne Ahonen of Finland managed 199.5m to grab the win, some 6.5m beyond anyone else. Though in the overall rankings, Austrian Thomas Morgenstern still held the lead.
• The famous Vogtland Arena in Klingenthal held 15,000 onlookers to watch 19-year old Eric Frenzel and team mate Ronny Ackermann win 1st and 2nd respectively in the Nordic Combined before swapping top positions to win Germany the Sprint round, too. Ackermann still lead the competition overall with a whopping 851 points.
• Meanwhile, in the Freestyle World Cup at Lake Placid, the USA took five podiums of the 12 available on their home soil.
• Ekaterina Stolyarova of Russia took her first ever World Cup win at Mt. Gabriel, Canada, for the Freestyle Moguls. In the Men’s, Guilbaut Colas of France held onto victory, shaking off his bronze finish at last year’s World Cup to success.
• Marco Sullivan and Bode Miller left the competition behind to give USA two more American wins following the Kandahar Downhill and the third Super Combined.
• Having not finished any lower than 3rd in the Giant Slalom, Italy’s Denise Karbon continued her amazing winning progress, despite nurturing a broken thumb. Karbon took her 5th World Cup victory in Ofterschwang during the another exciting Alpine event. Defending champion, Marlies Schild of Austria, took the win in the Men’s event.

February

• In Leysin, Switzerland, the Snowboard Cross continued in style with two exciting races. In the ladies, Helene Olafsen of Norway managed to beat Diane Liaudy of France to take the win. In the Men’s, Mario Fuchs scored his second pole following his first in his homeland Austria. Following his win, he stated “The grand final was really exciting… and was a real fight in the first curve, almost kamikaze. [A]fter the second bank, I was suddenly leading and just kept on accelerating and it worked out perfectly. I’m very happy right now.”
• Over in Sapporo, Japan, Thomas Morgenstern was further extending his lead with two back-to-back wins that left him over 610 points ahead of the chasing pack.
• The Freestyle concluded with dual moguls and 8,500 happily watching in Deer Valley, USA. Shelly Robertson brought it home for America after changing her final jump to take victory. Canadian Vincent Marquis won his first World Cup event in the Men’s Freestyle with an impressive final display.
• The first-ever Freestyle World Cup ski cross race in North America was held in Deer Valley. Davey Barr of Canada took his first every World Cup win and concluded “It was a pretty big deal for the sport. It shows we (North Americans) are here and are able to win these events. It’s good.”
• Bode Miller took the first of the season’s Crystal Globes after his win in Val d’Isere, France left him uncatchable.
• Stefan Gimpl confirmed his Crystal Globe after winning the season’s penultimate and final rounds in the Snowboard Big Air. The gutsy 15-year old Roope Tonteri (Finland) took it right to the line, but Gimpl landed his tricks to near perfection to take the pole.
• The thrilling fifth Snowboard Cross race left Canada’s Maelle Ricker narrowly edging past America’s Lindsey Jacobellis to take a well-earned win. For the Men’s the gap wasn’t quite as close, as Pierre Vaultier of France eased his way to victor.
• The Snow Queen Trophy was awarded to Tanja Poutiainen of Finland after she beat Austrian Marlies Schild by a huge half a second in the Slalom at Zagreb, Croatia.
• In the fourth snowboard Half-Pipe event of the season, Jiayu Liu made history by becoming the first ever Chinese winner. The 17-year old stayed modest and said of her win “I’m very happy. I put myself under a lot of pressure to secure this win. That I made it is just awesome”.
• Thomas Morgenstern clinched his World Cup title despite finishing fifth in the Willingen Ski Jumping competition.
• Lindsey Vonn fell just shy of victory in the Downhill at Whistler, but the 2nd place was still enough to clinch the World Cup title.
• Austrian Gregor Schlierenzauer takes the Ski Flying World Cup title at just 18 years of age. Following the win, he gushed: “This is a dream, my greatest victory so far.”

Roll on March!