Outrage after parallel chaos: “I’m really pissed off”

Federica Brignone was beside herself in the TV interview, expert Felix Neureuther even called race director Markus Waldner and the FIS doesn't know its own rules: A successful World Cup premiere for the parallel races looks different.

This new format is intended to create more spectacle in skiing. But hardly a race goes by without being met with heavy criticism afterwards. It was no different at the World Cup premiere on Tuesday - although this time the outrage was greater than ever before. This started the day before the race, when some stars (such as Alexis Pinturault, Henrik Kristoffersen and Michelle Gisin), who had expressed concerns about this new discipline in the past, decided not to take part. One course is significantly slower The race itself provided the best proof why the parallel format is so controversial in the ski circus. The background was the course in the Dolomites and the regulations: In the parallel format, the athletes compete against each other twice, each once on each course. Basically, the times are then added together and the fastest person advances. But if you fall in the first run or get too far behind, the time won't continue forever, but will stop at 0,50 seconds. So half a second is the maximum gap before the second run. “I think it was one of the worst races I’ve ever done.” Federico Brignone Because one course on Tuesday was significantly slower, meaning that in some cases more than half a second was lost, the athletes who had to ride on that part of the course in the decisive run were at a disadvantage. Federica Brignone experienced this firsthand: she was eliminated in the quarterfinals by Marta Bassino. She had to complete the second, decisive run on the much slower course.

>>> The report on Bassino's world championship title can be found here

“I’m really pissed off,” she said, visibly outraged, in the Rai interview. “I think it was one of the worst races I've ever done. And that too at a World Cup. Just unfair. I hope that Marta wins this race (Brignone gave the interview before the end of the race, editor’s note), but I’m really angry.”

Brignone (right) fights with Bassino: Afterwards, the overall World Cup winner's frustration erupted. © Pentaphoto

Brignone was not alone in her criticism. Marco Odermatt also expressed criticism. “I'm annoyed about everything. I am angry about my mistakes, I am responsible for them. At the same time you can see that one course is half a second faster. It's not 100 percent fair. The FIS has been saying for a long time that they are doing things better. But it's the same every time: you can't get it done. So the question is whether it makes sense,” said the talent of the century on SRF. Neureuther writes a text message to the race director Felix Neureuther, an expert at ARD, also burst his collar. The former German ski star was so upset about the different speed of course setting that he quickly picked up his cell phone during the live broadcast on ARD and rang the bell for FIS racing director Markus Waldner. When he didn't pick up on Tuesday, Neureuther said he wrote him a message to complain.

Neureuther asked Waldner to change the slow course slightly and thus make it similarly fast. As he said afterwards, the FIS race director actually replied to him during the race with a message in which he stated that a change of course was not possible and that he considered the competition to be fair. He didn't convince Neureuther. Who is the world champion now? The fact that the parallel format is still in its infancy became clear in the all-important women's final. Marta Bassino was declared the sole world champion after crossing the finish line at the same time as Katharina Liensberger because she was faster in the second run. In the previous rounds, this was the decisive criterion for equal times. It was only an objection from the ÖSV on the grounds that an ex aequo decision was also possible in the final that caused the FIS to revise its decision after half an hour also to declare Liensberger world champion .

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Outrage after parallel chaos: “I’m really pissed off”

Italy won its first medal at the World Championships in Cortina on Tuesday thanks to Marta Bassino. But the big topic of conversation after the parallel races was different.

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