Blog | MountVacation.com

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.

PS: You can also vist Mountvacation main site to book your next ski holidays and make sure not to miss the next great big sporting event on the slopes.

Swiss Alpine skiing finds itself troubled waters. Last season’s results were extremely successful, however, this turn around, the Swiss team didn’t come close to their past achievements. The biggest loser so far, being Carlo Janka. Indeed, last World Cup’s aggregate winner is exhausted. This could be the result from the lack of training this summer, as a mysterious virus cut short the preparations. Furthermore, he also missed the traditional pre New Year’s downhill race in Bormio.
The next issue is Silvan Zurbriggen. The Swiss champion is currently giving his coach Martin Rufener some serious headaches. In Lake Louise, he was thrown out of the hotel he was staying in for harassing the cleaning lady. He reportedly walked about his room wearing nothing but his birthday suit. A horrified maid filed a complaint; and out of the luxurious premises was Zurbriggen thrown.
For as long as they could, the Swiss team tried to keep the lid on the “scandal”, and they did for some time. But then Silvan won the race in Val Gardena and tongues unleashed. Not a rosy prospect for Zurbriggen, who is in a serious relationship, especially when one considers the fact that he found himself into similar waters a few years back in Alta Badia. That time, he allegedly exposed his manhood to an old lady, who resorted to denounce him to the local authorities. His line of defence then was that he was just responding to nature’s call.
To cap it all up, there’s Lara Gut. She will undoubtedly drive the Swiss team coach Mauro Pini off the wall. Let us remind ourselves that Pini was in Gut’s team only a while ago, and that their subsequent separation didn’t happen in the friendliest of manners. Lara, on several occasions, criticised in public the work of the Swiss A team. She did not agree with the team’s training methods. That’s not all! In the summer, she opted to join the Swedish team rather than her own. It all went too far that time, and the ski federation decided to ban her from the Semmering events. To miss an event in Alpine skiing represents a severe penalty, as competition seasons are pretty short.
Lara Gut has threatened to compete for another country. Should she do so, then the Swiss team could render her life a real misery. Lawyers have been brought in to resolve the matter so as to satisfy both parties. On top of all this, her own sponsors are now also suing the Swiss champion for conflict of interest.
Regardless, the Swiss have this year accumulated so many problems off the track that it could easily make for a repeat of last year’s results. Heads are simply not cool enough and thoughts are erring in the wrong direction. The season is now in full swing and the other teams are already rubbing their hands in expectation.

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

For every action, you can expect a reaction. After Head brought in their team the Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal, it left his serviceman at Atomic, Edi Unterberger, without employer. A true a master in his profession, he saw enormous success with Hermann Maier. He later briefly acted as Walchhofer Michael’s serviceman. As Atomic saw a brighter future with Svindal, the team designated Unterberger as serviceman for last year’s two times winner in the aggregate standings at the Norwegian World Cup. Remember, it was with his help that Svindal brought home the full scope of awards in the Vancouver Olympics. He then went on to join Head. For a hefty sum of money, at that!
Michael Walchhofer begins, this year, his final World Cup Season. In the previous season, the 35-year-old hotelier from Altenmarkt came short of bringing home more than a single win. He must have missed his former serviceman. After leaving Svindal, Walchhofer immediately went on to resume his cooperation with the now team-less Unterberger. Atomic welcomed the move, and as history shows, have hit the bull’s eye.
Walchhofer convincingly won the first downhill race of the season in Lake Louise, effectively ending the Austrian team poor string of performances. Indeed the team hadn’t won the main discipline since March 2009. A winning drought for Austria, the most powerful skiing nation in the world that lasted 630 days!
At the finish, the winner of 16th edition of the skiing World Cup looked at his ski and immediately pointed out in his first interview the fact that they were “unusually” fast. Indeed, Walchhofer enjoyed a clear advantage over his competitors in the flatter part of the Lake Louise racecourse, where good gliding is of the essence, and where the skis must be fast.
He thanked his serviceman, sipped ale and then went on to prepare for the super-G, which was on the program the next day. Brimming with self-confidence, he decided to take fairly aggressive skis to the giant slalom, despite conflicting advice from Unterberger. He finished 18th and later admitted that he will in the future listen more to the “man in the background”.
In a week time, men and women competitors will travel to the United States and Canada. The women were moved from Aspen to Lake Louise, where they will compete at the weekend in both speed events. This will be the first opportunity this season for Lindsey Vonn to prove that she still is the alpine skiing champion. Men were flown from the Canadian province of Alberta over to Denver and from there, forward on to Vail, more specifically on to Beaver Creek, where the Birds of Prey racecourse awaits them. This competition will host three races from Friday to Sunday, with the exciting downhill scheduled for the Friday. Walchhofer will again be present and so will his red and white rockets.

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

Held on February twelfth through the eighteenth, the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver brought in over 2,600 athletes from all over the world. There were 86 different events featuring seven different sports, including:

• Bobsled
• Skeleton
• Ice Hockey
• Luge
• Figure Skating
• Speed Skating
• Short Track Speed Skating
• Curling

Featuring summer and winter sports, The Olympic Games are a major international event that draws in millions of viewers. They are held every two years, rotating both summer and winter activities. So respectively, winter games are held every four years, as are summer games.

The games are typically sponsored by large selection of wealthy sponsors like Mcdonalds, Visa, Kodak, GE, and so on and so forth. This year, The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW) has made the decision to become an official Olympic Sponsor. CEO and Chair Andrew Liveris announced on July 16^th, 2010 that the company has become a Worldwide Olympic Partner via The Olympic Partners Program (TOP).

According to a press release by Bob Plishka of Dow, they will be known as the official “Chemistry Company” of the Olympic Movement. Congruently, they’ll be partnering with the IOC or International Olympic Committee and National Olympic Committees around the world all the way through 2020.

The International Olympic Committee is composed of a large number of both national and international sporting organizations and federations, media partners, athletes, judges, officials and any other related institution that agrees to follow the rules of the Olympic Charter. They are response for the following duties:

1. Choosing a hosting city
2. General Planning of the games
3. Updating and approving the program at hand
4. Negotiating Sponsors and distribution of rights

In a statement to the press: “With our long-standing commitment to global sustainability, innovation, scientific excellence and

Addressing world challenges, we believe Dow is perfectly matched to the vision of the Olympic

Movement, which is about peace, progress and the world coming together to celebrate our common humanity,” said Liveris. He goes on to mention that the partnership will only create new opportunities for both organizations and be a great growth catalyst for Dow and some of its newer ventures. President of the IOC, Dr. Jacques Rogge, welcomed Dow with open arms at the same press conference, stating “We are delighted to welcome Dow to the TOP Program…As a Global leader in the chemical industry and an innovator in sustainability, Dow will provide much more than critical financial support to the Olympic Movement. They will also bring industry-leading expertise and innovation to the Games themselves. Dow will be an important partner in making our vision for sustainability and global cooperation a reality.”

Author: David Suntin is a member of the sports blogosphere and speaks to a vast audience regarding major sporting events worldwide.

The World Cup Finals are a sure sign that spring has arrived and that Alpine Skiing will retreat from the spotlight for half a year.

The best skiers are gathered in Garmisch Partenkirchen and are taking part in the last competitions of the season, but many are already adding up the scores of this season. The season itself is far from over; there are several National Championships taking place in April and some FIS races as well. Some skiers will take time to test new equipments, as all sponsorship deals end after the Olympics.

The Germans are learning how to organise World Championship races. Garmisch Partenkirchen is hosting major skiing events next year as well as they gained some experience by hosting the Junior World Championship in Alpine Skiing last year and this year it was the world cup finale. After what I’ve experienced, they have their work cut out for them if they wish to get any praise in the future.

The press centre in the arena was certainly too small. In fact, it was actually a combination of a canteen, a space for teams and working space for reporters. Chaos ensued. During the first race of women’s grand slalom there was a power outage and many reporters were left without visual contact and race results.

This is unforgivable; every FIS race must have backup generators to prevent such problems. There were also plenty of logistical problems and it is vital they sort out the parking facilities. All in all, there is plenty of work to be done, and the slopes themselves are not as attractive as they could be.

A lot of buzz is surrounding the Austrian team. Once the strongest Alpine Skiing team in the world just had the worst season in history. First, there is the disaster at the Vancouver Olympics: the Austrian male team did not bring home a single medal. Downhill, the most revered discipline and an Austrian speciality, proved to be a disaster. They did not manage a single win in the entire season, which last happened 18 years ago. Things weren’t that great in the Super G and grand slalom either.

The only successful skier this season was Reinfried Herbst in slalom, and this does not suffice for the Austrians. Tony Geiger’s dismissal is now a fact, and it looks like the team is changing its head of the national team after 11 years. The chairman of the Austrian skiing association Peter Schröcksnadel is announcing radical changes, for example hiring Austrian coaches which had success with training other National teams. We have some interesting changes to look forward to as far as the »coach market« is concerned.

We need to mention someone else as well. In the men’s super G, we saw Liechtenstein’s Marco Büchel on the starting line for the last time. He is one of the most well loved alpine skiers. Everyone from his competition, coaches and reporters adored him. When he made it to the finish line in his shorts, half the female world cup contestants were waiting for him there. The winner of 4 world cup races is finally giving up skiing at 38. Now he’ll be able to spend more time with his wife Tania and his dog Jesper. He will surely stay linked with skiing however; he will be the expert correspondent at a German television channel.

Once you’ve got skiing in your blood, there’s no turning back.

Each Olympic Game brings its own winners and losers and their stories inspire us and other athletes for decades to come. These are stories that embody the Olympic dream. Children that wish to become athletes don’t dream about winning a world cup or perhaps a world championship competition, what drives them is the thought of winning an Olympic medal.

This is the magic behind the most prestigious sporting event. Every 4 years the best of the
best gather for 14 days and push the limits of what was thought possible. Higher, faster, stronger.

True heroes aren’t always those who win gold. There are hundreds of athletes from all over the world, and everyone has a story. Canada was moved by the story of Joannie Rochette. The popular figure skater’s mother passed away just before the start of the Olympics, and everyone thought that she would retire from the competition, but instead, she decided to participate and show the world everything she was working for every day these past 4 years.

The whole nation supported her. She received hundreds of letters and emails, each full of support and comforting words when she needed them most. She was very nervous before both of her performances, but she managed to focus and her performance was nearly perfect. She won bronze. Her father was on the stands, crying, and everyone in Canada was watching as well.

After the competitions she said, that this was something she had to do, and that her mother would surely understand, since she was supportive throughout her career and that she felt she was with her throughout the Olympics as well. This was the first figure skating medal for Canada since 1988.

This is just one among many stories that have already become part of Olympic history and those who will in the years to come. The only other story that touched so many people during these Olympics is Petra Majdič winning bronze in sprint cross country skiing with four broken ribs.

Both athletes have shown that the power of spirit can overcome the body, and that the limits of what was thought possible can be moved.
If we look through the archives of past Olympic Games we can find many of these stories. But their magic lies in their emotional charge and their power to inspire us to try harder in our day to day lives. Not all heroes are those who appear on the big screens. Everyone, who sets out to achieve their dream and is prepared to risk it all, is a true hero.

Canada isn’t one of the safest places when it comes to alpine and cross-country skiing. Sometimes the slopes and tracks are very close to trees, the ski lift support beams are covered with some of the thinnest cushions I’ve ever seen on ski slopes and gorges and precipices are fenced off by narrow bands. Apparently they feel that all they have to do to ensure safety is to include a disclaimer on their skiing tickets stating that everyone is skiing at their own risk. Anyway, the ditches and gorges next to the cross-country tracks were unprotected as well. The first one to notice this was the best cross-country skier in the world, Justina Kowalczyk, who warned the technical delegate for women’s cross country sprints that a particular turn on the slopes is dangerous
.
The technical delegate was Uroš Ponikvar, a fellow Slovene, who told Kowalczyk to leave him alone and to get ready for the race. Several minutes after this, Petra Majdič fell in the gorge on the exact same turn. She fell 3m and landed on ice and rocks breaking both her skis and skiing poles and hit herself badly. The security staff got her out and wanted to take her to the hospital, but Petra wanted to take part in the qualifications. After it became clear that she felt pains in her abdomen and ribs, she agreed to have an ultrasound examination, but only after ensuring that she’d be allowed to start last in the qualifications.

The ultrasound showed that nothing was broken; it was just a very serious blow. Petra was relieved, took some painkillers and went to the start line. She managed to get through qualifications and ran extremely well in the quarter finals. She was in agonizing pain, but gave everything she had and then some. They literally carried her off the finish line after every race. In the semi-finals, her adversaries were just too strong. She fell behind two of them, who would then be guaranteed a place in the finals, but kept going because she could still qualify on the basis of her time. She came in fourth, but got through to the finals.

Exhausted and in serious pain, she was about to start the race of her life. She knew that such an opportunity would never come along again. She knew she won’t be able to recover enough to attend the 30km race, that she’d be too old for the Sochi Olympics. She had worked 20 years for this opportunity. So it was now or never and after a truly heroic performance she won a bronze medal. She gave the last ounces of her strength for it, fainted as she crossed the finish line and some even thought she’d need resuscitation
.
Other coaches and competitors said her achievement was the equivalent of a gold medal, but Petra Majdič said that it was more: “It is gold with little diamonds in it.” They took her to a hospital soon after and a thorough examination showed that in fact, she had 4 broken ribs and a pierced lung. This season is over for her, but Petra’s Olympic dream still came true.

The Olympics came to a bad start, and let’s hope they will lead to a good end. First of all, the Georgian luger’s tragic accident at training. Nodar Kumaritashvili flew off the track at 150km per hour and collided with a support beam. He was dead in an instant. The saddest thing about this tragic event is that they were considering padding the beams in the morning but decided not to. This event shook everyone involved in the Olympics, and they honoured his memory with a minute’s silence. Now there’s a wooden fence around the tracks, preventing a similar event. Unfortunately, it’s too late.

New link for video HERE

There was trouble at the opening ceremony as well. All the technology involved in lighting the fire failed, because all the torches didn’t come up as they were supposed to. A fair bit of improvisation was needed, but they couldn’t hide how uncomfortable everyone was by this malfunction. Speed skater Catriona LeMay Doan was the worst off since she didn’t get to light the Olympic fire.

You can’t influence the weather, but Vancouver seems to be holding slightly chilly summer Olympics. It’s raining every day and the temperatures are above freezing point all the time. Organisers were already forced to postpone several alpine skiing competitions. Both slopes that were meant to hold the races are simply too soft to withstand the style of skiing these professionals have. The upper part of the slope is snowing all the time and they’re trying to shovel it away, and it’s raining on the lower half. They can’t use chemicals because they’d ruin the slopes, and those have to hold all disciplines.

Everyone is nervously watching the weather report. The current predictions say that the night from Sunday to Monday will bring below zero temperatures. In that case, the snow would freeze and we’d be able to witness some high-quality skiing. It is clear however, that the first to go down the slope would have an incredible advantage over the last ones.

And another complication. Because my speciality is alpine skiing, I attend all the technical meetings as well. When a public draw isn’t held, and it never is at the Olympics, they decide on start numbers at one of these meetings. The Canadians prepared special stones for this draw and wrote numbers on them. The problem is, these stones weren’t exactly the same shape and this, of course, caused an uproar among the coaches.

As I already mentioned, the first few start numbers will have a distinct advantage over everyone else. Competitors, ranked from 16 to 30 in the WCSL start list, are desperate to get a hold of them. Here’s the problem: Robbie Dixon is the Canadian downhill champion, he’s in good shape and would be capable of getting a medal with a little help from a good start position. The coaches took a look at the stones and saw, that it would be possible for someone who knew what he was looking for to find a particular stone, say number 3 or 4.

As I said, the coaches rebelled. The organisers weren’t prepared for it, but they had to give in to their arguments. Günther Hujara (FIS’s main judge) sided with the coaches at once and demanded they change the stones to balls, identical to the touch. It was late by that point and it was impossible to buy 60 ping pong balls in Whistler. So Hujara proposed they open 60 plastic bottles, which he spotted in the back of the tent, where the meeting took place, and drew numbers twice from 1 to 30. The coaches then agreed this would be a fair draw.

After all these complications they finally settled on a lineup, but it had no real meaning. The downhill race was postponed and the draw was annulled with it. The rules say that when a race is cancelled, the start numbers must be reassigned. So the next meeting will hold a draw as well, and hopefully, the Canadians will be prepared with something a bit more refined than bottle caps.

Urban Laurenčič

I think, deep down, I was prepared for what was to come. I just didn’t want to face it until it was right in front of me. From the second our producer gave me the plane tickets to Vancouver and I saw the times of departure and arrival, I knew what it would be like.

I hate long distance flights. I avoid them whenever I can help it, which is why I never go on far away vacations.

I generally like flying, but definitely not for ten hours. I can’t figure out why I can’t sleep on planes, so I have to waste my time reading, watching movies, drinking, stretching. And it’s still annoying as hell.
This was a necessary intro if I want to stress how incredibly relieved I was when I landed in Vancouver after 18 hours. The first thing we had to do was to confirm our press accreditations which, in the last few years, thankfully took place at the airport; an incredibly practical idea. Next we picked up our luggage and were directed to the buses which would take us to Whistler.

This world renowned, up-class resort is the location to where the majority of the competitions will take place. It only made sense for my co-workers and I to find accommodation in the centre of it all.

Glad that everything was going so smoothly, I pushed my trolley towards the parking lot. I knew that I was facing yet another two hours of driving but the thought of a shower and a bed at the end of it all calmed me down considerably. That was the plan at least, before a young man with a fake Olympic smile informed us that the bus wasn’t there yet.

Five minutes, the young man told us. Two and a half hours later, when the bus still wasn’t there, I wasn’t the only one feeling borderline suicidal. All my co-workers from the Slovene National TV, our colleagues from Austria and the ZDF German crew shared our desperation.

Eventually, we did manage to make it to Whistler and this wasn’t to be the end of our problems. The driver wasn’t a local and by this I mean he had never yet set foot in Whistler. He did have a commendable desire to take everyone right to the doorstep of their hotel but since he didn’t know where he was half the time, this got more and more annoying. He typed the coordinates into his Garmin and then struggled with the town’s new driving regime, set up for the Olympics. When we did manage to find a hotel, it was usually located at the end of a series of narrow roads and passages and took forever to get back out again. Long story short, 7 hours after landing in Vancouver I got to my hotel room, too tired to even get upset.

The next morning when I woke up, Whistler was looking better than ever in the morning sunlight. I’ll write about the town itself later, for now I’ll just say that it’s very clean and there are two vast skiing areas on either side of the town. When I manage to find some free time during the day, I’ll definitely try out what the skiing is like here. That is, if the weather will get any better. Rain and overcast weather are coming in from Hawaii, the organisers haven’t managed to set up the men’s downhill training and the forecast is even worse for the upcoming days. It seems that even the backup plans and basic schedules for competitions will have to be altered.

The conditions are similar to Europe’s spring but it isn’t clear how long this bad weather will last. At the speed with which the weather changes around here, it might be that we will complain about excess snow in just a few days. The official opening ceremony is drawing nearer and nearer, the athletes have arrived and the spectators are gathering. The games can begin and we just need  the weather to cooperate.