Soldeu, Andorra, Confirms It Lodged Formal Application for 2029 FIS Alpine World Championships

Soldeu in Andorra has confirmed that they have lodged their formal application to host the 2029 FIS Alpine World Championships. Soldeu is part of the Granvalira ski area in the small European micro-state. Grandvalira was founded in 2003 when the two resorts, Pas de la Casa-Grau Roig and Soldeu-El Tarter were merged, creating one of the largest ski resorts in Europe. The combined resort features 118 groomed runs stretching across a total of 210 km (131 miles) of ski runs, serviced by a modern network of ski lifts with an impressive capacity of more than 100,000 skiers/hour.

The FIS World Championships are held every two years in the various FIS disciplines. The last World Championships were this year, with Courchevel and Méribél, France, being hosts of the Alpine World Championships, while Planica, Slovenia, hosted this year’s Cross-Country World Championships and Bakuriani, Georgia, held the Freestyle events.

Similar to the Olympics, the appointment of the host for the next World Championships is made several years in advance. While the hosts for 2025 and 2027 have been decided, the decision for 2029 hosts will not be made until next year at the 55th FIS-congress which will be held on June 4, 2024, in Reykjavik, Iceland.

In May this year the International Ski & Snowboard Federation (‘FIS’) had received three initial bids for the 2029 Alpine World Championships by Narvik in Norway, Soldeu in Andorra, and Val Gardena/Gröden in Italy. Formal submissions for candidatures were due yesterday, August 1, 2023. Val Gardena/Gröden confirmed that their handed in their official documents on July 31, 2023, a day ahead of the deadline.

Today Soldeu confirmed that they handed in their formal dossier yesterday, consisting of 260 pages detailing their plan for a sustainable 2029 World Championship in their resort. David Hidalgo, General Director of the Andorra initiative, was optimistic about his small nation’s ability to host the 2029 World Championships. “Now we need to convince FIS that it is time to leave Central Europe and give the World Championships to the Pyrenees. Today we submitted a powerful concept. The proposal for 2027 was already strong, and in fact, the FIS has taken as a reference some of our ideas, for example, in terms of accessibility. It is a sound and innovative bid. We intend to make them look at all the different points. We are ready!”

The 260-page concept plan is based on a specific FIS questionnaire and covers essential elements, such as venues and facilities, workforce and volunteers, sustainability, transportation, security, organization structure, and financing. After having gone throught he procedure in 2027 but losing out to Crans-Montana, Switzerland, Soldeu was well versed with the procedure and after hosting the World Cup Finals this year, the small nation proved how well it can execute events of that calibre.