The times ensuing the 2006 Garmisch-Partenkirchen World Cup showed german skiing as a whole, in a dire position. The aim therefore in creating this competition was to promote skiing in a land where football and biathlon rule.
The Games on the Snow were created in that perspective, emulating the championship’s slogan in the process. However nature had a different conception of fun as it overwhelmed the games first, with ice and then with slush.This turned out in the to severely sap the overall quality of the competition. Damaged tracks and tons of snow salt covered with PTX was the principal source of troubles to the competitors.

Just take a look at the barren hills, where only a few white spots could be found. Those actually made the racing tracks and it wasn’t to impress neither. To add misery to all these weather complications, we also got to witness during the first part of the championship some very messy timings indeed. A fact that stands utterly unacceptable for a competition of such level, to say the least. The second part of the championship somehow saw those issues resolved, although doubts are still raised about some of the results. The International Ski Federation (FIS) can now expect to receive quite a few complaints from the other national ski federations.

TV production during the championship didn’t shine too bright either. The direction too managed their fair share of mistakes, partly due to the no optimal positioning of the track cameras.

In competitive terms, Austria, despite having its team ravaged by injuries still managed to maintain its status as the best ski nation. The credit for this, however, goes primarily to the girls, who took as many as four gold medals.
The biggest disappointment in term of results was the German team. The German organisers wanted to make a serial champion out of their favourite competitor, Maria Riesch. Instead, they ended up dragging her from one “dog show “ to another. Yet, despite feeling sick and exhausted, the First Lady of the World Cup still managed to take home two bronze medals, which is still less than the tally the Germans were hoping for as well as in stark contarst with the world Alpine skiing audience’s expectations.

With this prestation,it can be said that the Germans didn’t exactly demonstrate to be the perfect candidate to host the 2018 Munich Winter Games. However, we all know that other factors come in contention when it will be time to decide the championships’s host. The curtains has now been drawn in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. It now remains to be seen if Schladming will see any significant improvement.

Original text by Urban Lavrenčič translated from the Slovene by Christian Ngalikpima.

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