Sigi's tips: Slalom against Covid-19

... and suddenly it's here, winter. Not yet on the calendar, but on schedule. The first ski race is coming up again. It's nice that nature quickly sent us a cold front to prepare us for the uncomfortable season. The warm jackets are now ready to hand and the shoes that go with them are ready. Ready to go. So let's trudge a little uncertainly into a new adventure. Because this is what awaits us. Corona is omnipresent.

Once the first turns have been drawn in the snow on the glacier course in Sölden, there will probably be a cautious all-clear. Hopefully. Then we know: There will be an Alpine ski winter and with it most other winter sports. But this is by no means certain. In South Tyrol, the slopestyle competition on the Alpe di Siusi, long a classic, was canceled and the ski cross competition in San Candido has already been canceled. That's why the two giant slaloms on the Rettenbach-Ferner weekend have a tremendous signal effect in every respect. Safety, hygiene, distance rules (just not too much at the best time): everything is being put to the test, because after the Corona hotspot Ischgl last winter, every North Tyrolean and maybe even every Austrian knows that nothing, absolutely nothing, can go wrong. The motto is to arrive healthy. And also leave again. Same thing for everyone. Sölden is just a test run for everything And the sport? Oh yes. Let's be honest. Now in mid-October it's just a test after a pretty difficult preparation for everyone because nothing was like it was in previous years. What was particularly annoying was the search for good training conditions in Corona times. And nothing will be as usual anymore. We have to adapt to a lot of new things. In terms of the process but also in terms of the sporting expectations. Of course, people in South Tyrol are hoping for Dominik Paris and who knows, maybe Manfred Mölgg will finish two really good runs. And as is usual in skiing, the international elite are also followed with interest. But stars like Marcel Hirscher, Felix Neureuther and Lindsey Vonn, who also cut a good figure off the piste, are missing. The glamor factor cannot yet be discerned on the Richter scale, which is open to the top. Difficult times are coming for everyone Difficult, if not downright dark, times are ahead for the ski elite and their large association, the International Ski Federation (FIS). No races overseas, a new calendar, suddenly fewer parallel races that suddenly took on special meaning despite intense protests from the athletes. A bubble like that found in indoor sports (basketball or volleyball) cannot be implemented in skiing. Technicians, athletes, trainers, physiotherapists, marshals, start judges, lift staff and media. It's a whole armada that suddenly finds itself in one place and on a mountain, on a slope even. You should actually stay out of each other's way and still have to stand together. It's almost as if the wheel had to be reinvented. Of course you have to do without spectators, especially since the number of infections is increasing everywhere. A break is essential Every sport, including alpine skiing of course, is now experiencing a turning point, a deep turning point. Survival, including financially, has become more difficult because winter sponsors and ski companies are spending every cent. Active people, associations and fans. Anyone who wants to be involved will have to learn that humility can also be a virtue. After years of constant growth, this is also an opportunity to secure the future. The virus is now showing us the way. Also between the slalom gates.

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Sigi's tips: Slalom against Covid-19

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