Industry News
At the end of last month, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) snuck in a little Easter egg into its World Cup rule book: the introduction of a wildcard for retired athletes. The new rule directly benefits Dutch-Austrian ski racing legend Marcel Hirscher, who retired from competitive skiing in 2019, and some allege the rule was introduced specifically to benefit Hirscher.
The new rule has proven to be divisive, with several athletes and coaches speaking to Swiss newspaper Blick to express their objections to the wildcard. “This is absolutely outrageous,” said Christian Leitner, who runs the Race Academy in Kitzbühel, Austria. “This new rule is a slap in the face for every young athlete who has to fight hard to get a place in the first third of the starting list. Hirscher won everything. He doesn’t need handouts, especially since he constantly emphasizes that he would not return to racing with great sporting ambitions but out of pure joy. I could have lived with it if the great old master Hirscher had benefitted from this special permit for a single race. But certainly not for a whole season.”
Leitner’s objections are understandable, given that the rule will enable Hirscher to start in slot 31 after the top 30 athletes. In World Cup races, the top 30 slots are given to the highest-ranked athletes, and the starting order is decided by means of a lottery. Slots 31-60 are awarded by FIS ranking to the remaining athletes. An automatic classification of a retired champion like Hirscher as 31st starter gives him an advantage over younger skiers trying to break into the top 30. However, from a commercial point of view this ruling makes sense, as oftentimes, the live TV feed will cut from the race to interviews after the top 30 skiers have raced. The 31st starting slot ensures that Hirscher’s debut will be televised which is the whole purpose of the wildcard rule.
U.S.-Greek athlete AJ Ginnis also took objection to the new wildcard rule, stating “If the FIS says that this has been agreed with the athletes, that is simply not true. No one in the Whatsapp group, to which all tech specialists in the World Cup circuit belong, knew.” AJ Ginnis was a U.S. ski racer until he was dropped from the U.S. Alpine Team in 2020. He now races for Greece, where the 29-year-old was born. Swiss Slalom skier Justin Murisier also stressed the unfairness of the decision, stating, “I’m annoyed about it. The representatives of the International Ski Association are always happy to emphasize that fairness must be the focus of every rule. That’s why the slopes are iced so that as many skiers as possible find identical conditions in a race. But for Marcel Hirscher, a rule is now being changed—that is definitely not fair!”
Hirscher announced after the news of the wildcard became public that he was not changing his plans of going to New Zealand to compete in a couple of races at Coronet Peak. Hirscher is still very cautious about his potential success in returning to the World Cup circuit after five years of not training or competing. Coronet Peak will host four FIS Slalom and Giant Slalom events from August 15-19 and another four FIS Slalom and Giant Slalom events from August 27-31.
- Related: Marcel Hirscher Discusses Comeback at Press Conference at Snowworld in Zoetermeer, Netherlands
It will be interesting to see how Hirscher will perform at the FIS races in New Zealand and at the subsequent World Cup races. The men’s World Cup season opener will be held at Sölden, Austria, where a Giant Slalom race is scheduled for October 27. It is expected that Hirscher will attend the race in his former home country but nothing has been confirmed yet officially.
- Related: Preliminary FIS Alpine World Cup Calendar for 24/25 Proposes a Total of 17 Events in North America
