Sport News
Snowboard Season Review with Uwe Beier
FIS Snowboard Race Director Uwe Beier has taken a moment to evaluate the past season.
Looking back, what is your overall evaluation of the past 2012/13 season?
The season finished only a few weeks ago and, as usual, preparations for the coming season are already well underway.
Overall, we can look back to a very positive Snowboard season even though the weather forced some cancellations. We are especially happy to have been able to stage our events at a high level, despite the fact that a title sponsor was missing.
The past season was characterised by spectacular World Championships and the Olympic qualification period. Also, due to an adjustment in our entry system for participants, the starter fields in halfpipe and slopestyle competitions grew significantly.
Unfortunately, the pre-Olympic test competition in slopestyle in Sochi had to be cancelled due to unseasonably warm weather, which is why only three out of four slopestyle events were organised this season.
With regard to halfpipe, all competitions were held at a 100% level and in high class pipes.
In snowboard cross, we staged outstanding, tight competitions throughout the season which also marked the introduction of heats with six riders in a majority of events. The SBX team event has now reached a greater level of competition and acceptance among the riders. For the first time, we held three World Cup events in this format with increasing demand also from the side of the Organisers. The team event will have its World Championship debut at the combined FIS Freestyle Skiing and Snowboard World Champs 2015 in Kreischberg (AUT).
With regard to the parallel events, the Sochi test event for slalom had to be cancelled for the same reason as slopestyle, however, the parallel giant slalom was successfully carried out and we are looking forward to exciting competitions at the Games. The introduction of the single run format was also a success and we will be staging some of our Alpine Snowboard events in this format in the future.
Our ultimate season highlight was the FIS Snowboard World Championships in Stoneham (CAN) in January. Special thanks to the Organisers and all their volunteers for the great efforts to deliver such an outstanding event. Despite freezing temperatures, all competitions were carried out and featured spectacular performances in all eleven medal events.
Any major challenges?
This season has not been easy in terms of providing quality over quantity, since our competition schedule was packed with events. Especially the combined events (Telluride, Copper, Park City, Sochi, Sierra Nevada) together with Freestyle Skiing proved to be real “monster events” especially in terms of the number of participants and associated logistics.
However, the success of these events as reflected by the increased TV figures has shown that this model of competition has a great future and we will be do our best to provide the necessary requirements to lift them to a next level.
On the road to the next season...
We are already in the midst of our 2013/14 season preparations which will kick off, as last season, in New Zealand. For the first time, slopestyle will also be on the schedule there.
Naturally, the Sochi 2014 Games will be our highlight, including the qualification period preceding the Games.
Next week, we will be travelling to Sochi for further preparations. The Sochi 2014 Organising Committee is highly motivated to make the Games a truly spectacular event. We as FIS will be doing our best to support them as best as possible. I am already looking forward to it!
Looking back, what is your overall evaluation of the past 2012/13 season?
The season finished only a few weeks ago and, as usual, preparations for the coming season are already well underway.
Overall, we can look back to a very positive Snowboard season even though the weather forced some cancellations. We are especially happy to have been able to stage our events at a high level, despite the fact that a title sponsor was missing.
The past season was characterised by spectacular World Championships and the Olympic qualification period. Also, due to an adjustment in our entry system for participants, the starter fields in halfpipe and slopestyle competitions grew significantly.
Unfortunately, the pre-Olympic test competition in slopestyle in Sochi had to be cancelled due to unseasonably warm weather, which is why only three out of four slopestyle events were organised this season.
With regard to halfpipe, all competitions were held at a 100% level and in high class pipes.
In snowboard cross, we staged outstanding, tight competitions throughout the season which also marked the introduction of heats with six riders in a majority of events. The SBX team event has now reached a greater level of competition and acceptance among the riders. For the first time, we held three World Cup events in this format with increasing demand also from the side of the Organisers. The team event will have its World Championship debut at the combined FIS Freestyle Skiing and Snowboard World Champs 2015 in Kreischberg (AUT).
With regard to the parallel events, the Sochi test event for slalom had to be cancelled for the same reason as slopestyle, however, the parallel giant slalom was successfully carried out and we are looking forward to exciting competitions at the Games. The introduction of the single run format was also a success and we will be staging some of our Alpine Snowboard events in this format in the future.
Our ultimate season highlight was the FIS Snowboard World Championships in Stoneham (CAN) in January. Special thanks to the Organisers and all their volunteers for the great efforts to deliver such an outstanding event. Despite freezing temperatures, all competitions were carried out and featured spectacular performances in all eleven medal events.
Any major challenges?
This season has not been easy in terms of providing quality over quantity, since our competition schedule was packed with events. Especially the combined events (Telluride, Copper, Park City, Sochi, Sierra Nevada) together with Freestyle Skiing proved to be real “monster events” especially in terms of the number of participants and associated logistics.
However, the success of these events as reflected by the increased TV figures has shown that this model of competition has a great future and we will be do our best to provide the necessary requirements to lift them to a next level.
On the road to the next season...
We are already in the midst of our 2013/14 season preparations which will kick off, as last season, in New Zealand. For the first time, slopestyle will also be on the schedule there.
Naturally, the Sochi 2014 Games will be our highlight, including the qualification period preceding the Games.
Next week, we will be travelling to Sochi for further preparations. The Sochi 2014 Organising Committee is highly motivated to make the Games a truly spectacular event. We as FIS will be doing our best to support them as best as possible. I am already looking forward to it!
Source: FIS
