Sölden Recap And Thoughts

This past weekend, I had the pleasure and honor of watching the World Cup opener in Sölden live—again. As always, it's been amazing to get up there in the morning, as you drive up the mountain road and get to see the racing hill. It always brings me back to 2016, when I got to see that slope for the very first time and thought to myself, "Holy shit! That looks like the Wall" (I'd obviously watched GoT back then).As the weekend ended—following the close of a very long camp in Central Europe with the team I coach (also the reason I've been absent from the blog for a while)—I gathered some thoughts that I figured could be interesting to share.

In the weeks leading up to the Sölden weekend, the team and I have been around the athletes getting ready for the big opener. Luckily, I have a lot of friends on a variety of World Cup teams (coaches and athletes alike), to whom I am very grateful for the opportunity to pick their brains here and there—as well as families, friends, and partners of athletes on the circuit.

After reflecting on a multitude of conversations that I had the pleasure of engaging in, I believe I'm not far off if I narrow it down to two key terms: "Stressed" and "Not Ready." Naturally, as a disclaimer upfront, I'll say that I haven't interviewed all 60 athletes and the respective 100+ staff of those who made the Top 30 during the opener. However, of the ones I've talked to, it seems like those two terms are at the tip of everyone's tongue. One specific example I can write about—but I won't mention which team this was (because it was a conversation I overheard in the gondola)—is that I heard a World Cup team coach say they'd had about 30–32 days on snow two weeks before Sölden. I don't know what your opinion is on how many days you'd need before you step out of the gate, but that's not enough to do a proper build-up, to go 100%, all-in, down one of the—arguably—most difficult hills on the entire World Cup circuit. Again, that's just my opinion, and I don't know what they did in those days—maybe it was enough; I can't judge it in its entirety.

The plain stress of "getting ready" that early, I believe, is also amplified by the stress built up through the general vibe around the glaciers in Central Europe, where everybody gathers to get up to speed. Unbelievably long queues in the morning, where you can stand in line just waiting to get into the gondola or train for up to an hour; difficult conditions due to a lack of snow (or because you want to make them similar to race conditions); coaches stressing other coaches to race up the mountain or down the hill when setting the course or straying into another team's line; long days at altitude that are more draining anyway; and the list goes on and on. I've genuinely gotten stressed just writing these things down. All of these are examples that athletes and coaches encounter on a regular basis. What does that lead to? Maybe a negative stress feedback loop? Likely.

Back to the point of being "Not Ready." One point I've discussed recently—because someone asked for my opinion on what the solution could be for this, as the stress factor and the anxiety of not being ready go hand in hand...Recently, I discussed this topic with someone who isn't really involved with ski racing but is a fan of the sport—who, unfortunately, had no idea how much these factors actually play a role. He asked for my opinion on what I think the solution could be. I didn't really know how to answer the question, aside from the classic comments: push the start of the season back, limit the options on the material side, blah blah... However, through talking to him, I came up with an idea that I'd like to present today. The reason I'm introducing this is that I've never heard it mentioned before—and if it has, I hope it's interesting enough to repeat.

In the U.S., the big four sports leagues—MLB, NBA, NHL, and NFL—all have an official preseason. In the NFL, each team plays three preseason games; in the NHL, six to eight; in the NBA, 3–5; MLB: approximately 30 (for recruiting purposes). The concept of "preseason" is not an unfamiliar term in Europe either (look at soccer). It's even a commonly used term in ski racing as well. However, it is not an accurate representation of the term itself when used in a conversation regarding skiing.

In the sport of ski racing, the preseason basically consists of training—whether down south (i.e., NZ, CHI, ARG) or in Central Europe—and trying to work on one task or another. The further the preseason comes along, the more athletes have to step up their game and start looking toward performing in training. More specifically, however, the environmental conditions in these trainings are still very distinguishable from those in a race situation. Even if you try to make it similar to a race.

That's where my argument comes in: It is the simple truth, for example, that in the past few years, we've had a disparity in the World Cup between how many races there are in the tech disciplines vs. the speed disciplines[i]. Furthermore, the argument that the start of the race season should be pushed back also has a lot of valid reasoning behind it—such as the environmental image of the sport, safety, challenges for teams to prepare, etc. However, that argument alone—while necessary—is not sufficient[ii].

My proposal is: Move the calendar back. Equal the disciplines so that it's 10 races in each. And because you'd have moved the calendar back, add one official preseason GS and one official preseason SL. It is not counted in the Cup. There is no prize money. But the entire setup is the same as in an actual World Cup race. Additionally, so that you don't lose money, you can make the event exclusive. Aim to go net zero on the money by limiting the number of tickets sold. These tickets you can then sell for quite a lot of money. Cut the live coverage. The videos that would be made on the hill would be only for highlights and interviews later[iii]. Don't aim to profit off this. The goal should be to give the fans attending an exclusive BTS experience and break even on the money. This way, you—FIS—would get the opportunity to use it as practice for everything to run smoothly[iv]; the athletes get to step into race mode when it doesn't count—which can help them mentally reduce the stress of the unfamiliarity of racing situations, which could help lower the general stress on the hills, which could maybe lead to fewer injuries in the preseason, etc., etc.—and the viewers have an exclusive experience with the sport, making it more attractive. A win-win-win-win situation, in my opinion.

Maybe this sounds ridiculous, and I've had a hard time putting it into words—as I feel it's quite complicated to explain the "Why would FIS think of doing this?"—but I hope I did my best to explain it thoroughly. Until next time...

[i] Although the organization is not the sole reason for that (i.e., weather).

[ii] I want to thank my Cog. Psy. & Stat Professor, Yasuhiro Ozuru, for drilling us with these differentiations. As well as “correlation is not causation”, what a “null hypothesis is” (although me defining it now, might be unsatisfactory, as it’s been a while), and introducing me to Neuroscience.

[iii] One could also think about the possibility, to make it an exclusive live-stream, pay-per-view, event. That, aside from the people attending live, people at home could buy a cheaper access ticket to watch at home.

[iv] The book “How Big Things Get Done” explains this very well, from a “mega”-construction-management standpoint.