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Home advantage light for Switzerland | Sports at home / abroad

Skicross – Starting today, snowboard and ski crossers will fight for the World Championship medals in Idre Fjäll, Sweden. The change of location is not inconvenient for the Swiss ski cross team due to the cancellation from China.

The bad news for the winter sports elite came at the beginning of December in the form of several short communiqués from the International Ski Federation (FIS). The content of the fatal letters was practically identical for each discipline: The FIS announced that all events of the season in China would not take place due to strict coronavirus rules and that the main Olympic rehearsals would be canceled for the time being. The freestyle section, which also includes ski and snowboard crossers, was hit particularly hard by the cancellation because Zhangjiakou was the location of the planned collective world championships.

The search for alternative venues – no longer for a joint Freestyle World Championship, but divided according to discipline – became a race against time. The fact that the cross-title fights were finally relocated to Idre Fjäll, Sweden, suits the Swiss entourage around ski cross head coach Ralph Pfäffli. The course in West Sweden is the longest and most demanding in the World Cup; unlike elsewhere, the outcome of the race is not decided at the start. This is well received by the Swiss ski athletes.

The Swiss demonstrated just over two weeks ago how well the track suits them in the World Cup, where they celebrated seven podium positions in six races. Now a Swiss septet (Fanny Smith, Talina Gantenbein, Sanna Lüdi, Ryan Regez, Jonas Lenherr, Marc Bischofberger and Alex Fiva) are trying to win the World Championship medals on the route, which has been slightly modified for the benefit of snowboard crossers.

For men it would be the first ever. Since 2005, the ski cross world champions have been crowned every two years. The Swiss ski athletes have always been among the favorites, but there are always disappointments. Two years ago in Solitude Mountain, Alex Fiva, a Swiss man finally made it into the big final, but he didn’t get past 4th place. “World championships are somewhat of a red rag in the men’s team,” says head coach Pfäffli.

It would be the punchline he and his team deserved this season, in which almost nothing is as it always was if one of the men’s quartet were to end the curse of the World Cup. The first Swiss medal for men would also fit this place in nowhere in Sweden. For Swiss ski crossers, this is much more than just a World Cup station. “Idre Fjäll has become a bit of a second home for us,” says Pfäffli, who has a crush on the country and its people. Two years ago, the Swiss even set up their tents there in preparation for the season, without Corona they would have repeated this for this season.

While the selection of the men’s team caused the coaching staff around Pfäffli a few restless nights, as it did before every major event, the trio for the women came together as if by itself. In addition to the big favorite and qualification winner Smith – the Vaudois has always emerged from the last four world championships as a medal winner – with Gantenbein and Lüdi, two Swiss women are at the start, both of whom are good for a surprise.

Snowboard crosser as an outsider

The Swiss snowboard crossers start the World Cup races with far less pressure. At 25, Nick Watter is the most experienced of the Swiss trio that qualified for Thursday’s individual finals. In the women’s trio, only Lara Casanova survived the qualification.

Most likely a surprise is the Winterthur Kalle Koblet. The 23-year-old, who has achieved 4th place as the best result in the World Cup, impressed with the fifth-fastest time in qualification. He is not expected to win a medal, just a little bit of coincidence always drives cross competitions – it would have been like that in China, it will be like that in Sweden too.

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