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Watching racers whizz by means of the Tofana schuss at prime pace might be the signature picture of the snowboarding world championships.
Wedged between two large partitions of rock close to the highest of the ladies’s downhill course, the schuss, or “chute,” hurtles skiers down the mountain at greater than 130 kph (80 mph).
It’s the place one misplaced edge or unsuitable transfer can imply the distinction between a gold medal and a horrific crash.
The schuss can also be an enormous a part of an countless array of spectacular surroundings in Cortina d’Ampezzo, the resort often called the “Queen” of the Italian Dolomites.
The pure great thing about Cortina can be of particular significance at these championships, with organizers hoping that the photographs from the slopes beamed world wide to TV viewers will make up for the shortage of followers amid the coronavirus pandemic.
After final 12 months’s World Cup finals in Cortina have been worn out due to the unfold of COVID-19, organizers requested the Worldwide Ski Federation to postpone the worlds to 2022. However the request was denied as a result of that might have put the competitors too near subsequent 12 months’s Beijing Olympics.
“We didn’t have another,” organizing committee president Alessandro Benetton mentioned. “Up within the mountains we are saying, ‘You’ve obtained to construct the hearth with the wooden that you’ve.’ We’re trying on the glass as half-full. We’re hoping it’s an enormous media occasion.”
As a part of a nationwide ban on followers at sports activities occasions in Italy, no spectators can be allowed in Cortina when the championships open Monday with the ladies’s mixed race.
“Certain, we can be missing some environment,” Benetton mentioned. “However we’re hoping that can be compensated by the TV protection — just like the way in which Cortina was placed on the map by the 1956 Olympics.”
ATHLETE SAFETY
As a part of a strict anti-virus protocol, medals will awarded to athletes on the slopes within the end space instantly after races finish — versus at a medal plaza on the town in the course of the night as per customized.
Moreover fixed testing for the coronavirus for everybody in attendance, color-coded bubbles have been set as much as maintain completely different teams aside: a crimson bubble for groups (athletes, coaches, group physicians, bodily therapists, ski males) and different race personnel; a blue bubble for organizational employees, volunteers and regulation enforcement personnel; a yellow bubble for the media; and a inexperienced bubble for visitors and dignitaries.
MEDAL FAVORITES
Two-time Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin can be a prime contender within the opening occasion, the ladies’s mixed. Former general World Cup champion Lara Intestine-Behrami has gained 4 straight World Cup super-G races and can be an amazing favourite for that race on Day 2.
The lads’s super-G may also be contested Tuesday with Olympic champion Matthias Mayer among the many contenders.
The signature downhills can be held on the center weekend, with American racer Breezy Johnson among the many contenders for the ladies’s title on Feb. 13 and Mayer going up in opposition to Swiss rival Beat Feuz for the coveted males’s gold medal a day later.
Italian teammates Marta Bassino and Federica Brignone are aiming for glory on residence snow within the ladies’s large slalom, with general World Cup chief Petra Vlhová seeking to defend her GS title from 2019. Shiffrin will then go for a fifth straight slalom world title.
INJURIES
A number of large names can be lacking due to harm.
Olympic champion Sofia Goggia broke her proper knee in a fall final weekend — a devastating technique to finish her run of 4 straight victories in World Cup downhills.
Additionally final month, defending general World Cup champion Aleksander Aamodt Kilde tore ligaments in his proper knee in a crash.
OLYMPIC TEST
The championships can be an enormous take a look at run for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics.
A brand new males’s pace course can be used for the primary time. It’s referred to as Vertigine, which interprets as “vertigo.”
The slalom races can be contested on the steep Druscié A piste, which was the place Austrian nice Toni Sailer gained one among his three gold medals on the 1956 Olympics.
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Extra AP sports activities: https://apnews.com/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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Andrew Dampf is at https://twitter.com/AndrewDampf
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