“After the very successful glacier opening in Sölden (Austria) and the perfect slalom event north of the Polar Circle in Levi (Finland), it’s a very spectacular challenge to organize an Alpine event on the biggest ski ramp ever seen in the middle of the Russian metropolis of Moscow," acknowledged Günter Hujara, FIS Chief Race Director for the Alpine men. "The format of a parallel event in this invitational competition gives us the chance to promote both the FIS World Cup and our athletes, the heroes, with equal attention to the sport and to providing an excellent show. It is also the first time that our best male racers will be joined by most of the world’s best lady slalom skiers.
“We will start water injecting the course at midnight," Hujara explained. "The plan is to set a single pole course with approximately 20, perhaps 22 gates. The racers will get their first glimpse of the ramp at 6 p.m. local time tomorrow, before the great show starts at 8 p.m.”
The world’s best slalom racers will be participating, led by Jean-Baptiste Grange (FRA) and Maria Riesch (GER), the reigning FIS World Cup slalom champions, Riesch also being the 2009 slalom world champion, and the winner of the season opening World Cup slalom at Levi. Also part of the game, Riesch’s male counterpart Manfred Pranger (AUT), the men’s 2009 slalom champion at the World Ski Championships in Val d’Isère (FRA) and Reinfried Herbst (AUT) who won at Levi last weekend.
The organizers expect 25,000 to 30,000 spectators, the same as last year. Live TV coverage will be shown on Russian national TV and on ORF and RAI, as well as delayed on Eurosport and Eurosport Asia and highlights on the two German channels of ARD and ZDF.
In the men’s competition there are 16 athletes at the start. In the first round, the best ranked athlete - according to the WCSL slalom list - will race against the 16th best ranked athlete present, i.e. eight pairs. Each pair will race two runs, once on each course (red on the left, and blue on the right). The maximum time penalty for not finishing the first run has been set at 0.5 sec. In the second run, the time penalty is integrated (i.e. the time difference from the first run, up to a maximum of 0.5 sec, determines the delayed opening of the start gate) so the first racer crossing the finish line is the winner who will advance to the next heat.
The quarter-finals and semi-finals follow the same format. The winners of the two semi-finals will race in the Big Final for the victory in the Audi FIS Alpine Ski Champions Cup, and the losers in the Small Final for third and fourth places.
The first-time women's competition follows the same rules with the difference that there are eight racers at the start, so the competition already starts with the quarter-finals.
Unlike the first edition, where giant slalom gates were used, Saturday’s race will be staged as a single pole parallel slalom.
This season’s venue is located not far from the last event’s venue (Moscow State University Square), at the Moscow City Palace of Children’s and Youth Creativity. The new venue is known as the Moscow Grand Ramp Arena. This year’s ramp is 66 meters high and 35 meters wide, with the total length of the slope of 210 meters. Comparing to the last year’s ramp height of 56 meters and length of the slope of about 170 meters, the ramp again sets a world record.
The Moscow City Palace of Children’s and Youth Creativity is a historical venue with long traditions heavily intertwined with the past of the Soviet era.
Participants
Men
1. GRANGE, Jean-Baptise (FRA)
2. PRANGER, Manfred (AUT)
3. LIZEROUX, Julien (FRA)
4. HERBST, Reinfried (AUT)
5. HARGIN, Mattias (SWE)
6. HIRSCHER, Marcel (AUT)
7. MYHRER, Andre (SWE)
8. ROCCA, Giorgio (ITA)
9. JANYK, Michael (CAN)
10. THALER, Patrick (ITA)
11. RAZZOLI, Giuliano (ITA)
12. MISSILIER, Steve (FRA)
13. HOERL, Wolfgang (AUT)
14. VALENCIC, Mitja (SLO)
15. HOROSHILOV, Alexandr (RUS)
16. ZUEV, Stepan (RUS)
Women
1. RIESCH, Maria (GER)
2. AUBERT, Sandrine (FRA)
3. PIETILÄ-HOLMNER, Maria (SWE)
4. HANSDOTTER, Frida (SWE)
5. JELUSIC, Ana (CRO)
6. BÖRSSEN, Therese (SWE)
7. CHMELAR, Fanny (GER)
8. RAYANOVA, Lyaysan (RUS)
Prize Money
All invited athletes (men and women) will receive a participation fee in the amount of USD $10,000. Prize winners will receive the net prize money.
Men:
1st place – USD $30,000
2nd place – USD $20,000
3rd place – USD $10,000
Women
1st place – USD $30,000
2nd place – USD $10,000
3rd place – USD $5,000
