At the last meeting of the FIS Council on May 25th, the Italian Winter Sports Federation made a request to the FIS to postpone the upcoming FIS World Ski Championships. The event was scheduled to take place this coming February 2021, however, the town of Cortina asked for postponement due to how hard the Veneto region was hit by the COVID-19 outbreak.
During the conference call meeting on July 2nd, the FIS Council confirmed that the event would indeed take place in Cortina, Italy as scheduled. Since the initial request was made, the International Ski Federation and the Italian Winter Sports Federation have been working together to find solutions to keep the World Championships on schedule. It appears the work has paid off.
“We are happy that we could find a solution that the Cortina 2021 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships will be staged in during the originally planned period in February 2021 to take their place as one of the highlights of the FIS winter season calendar,” said FIS President Gian Franco Kasper. “The last month of efforts to come to this solution demonstrates the strong collaborative spirit of the ski family and stakeholders involved to enable this important decision to be reached”
Though there do not seem to be any details yet as to how to event will be handled in the context of COVID-19, it does seem that there is some shared excitement about the event coming together as scheduled.
"FISI has worked the last five years in close collaboration with all the stakeholders involved in the World Championships in Cortina,” said FISI President Flavio Roda. “It was clear after speaking to them in the last weeks, there was a strong desire to carry out the event in 2021 and to put all resources available to ensure that the World Championships are carried out at the highest level. Based on this feedback and the clear commitment of all parties, FISI expressed to the FIS Council the importance of these World Championships to be staged in 2021 as a positive signal for the entire country of Italy.”
The confirmation comes as good news to one athlete, in particular, Italy's own Federica Brignone, who won the Women's Overall World Cup title this past season, becoming the first Italian woman to do so.
“I’m very happy that FIS confirmed the World Ski Championships will take place in 2021, especially for Cortina. After the cancellation of the World Cup Finals last March, in fact, Cortina deserves to have such a major event be staged as originally scheduled. They have worked really hard. From an athlete’s perspective, having to participate in two big events such as the Olympics and the World Championships in 2022, one right after the other, would have been quite difficult. I’m happy that the event will take place next February as originally planned. As for my competitive career, these last few years have been really good and I would love to achieve great results at the home World Championships, hopefully in front of the fans. I just can’t wait to be back on the slopes”. - Federica Brignone
As the show must go on, the schedule for the World Championships will be February 9th to the 21st, of 2021. Stay tuned to FIS and other ski media outlets and social media for exact details for spectators and where to watch from home.
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