International Ski Federation is advocating the inclusion of slope-style in the 2014 Winter Olympics
Even though International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) decision regarding the skiing and snowboarding slope-style’s induction in the 2014 Winter Olympics is still pending, the Freestyle Skiing
Coordinator for the International Ski Federation (FIS), Joe Fitzgerald, is very optimistic.
Fitzgerald made a trip to the 2014 Olympic snowboarding and free-style skiing venue at the Sochi Resort of Rosa Khutor, Russia, in November 2010. At that time, the preparation of the new
slope-style trail had begun. He will be making another visit to Sochi Resort once again on 26 April to check on the progress of the trail and find out whether it would be ready in time to host a ski and snowboard slope-style course, i.e. in case the two disciplines
get approved for the 2014 Winter Olympics by the IOC.
The Freestyle Skiing Coordinator strongly believes that IOC will give their approval for the incorporation of slope-style to the Olympic program eventually. He feels that the only reason
why the IOC is taking their time to finalise their decision on slope-style’s inclusion in the 2014 Olympics is because of the logistics issues. He explained that IOC were able to take a much quicker decision on ski half-pipe’s inclusion to the Olympic program
because a course already existed. On the other hand, there is no course for the slope-style yet and so the IOC has not been quite sure whether it would be feasible to introduce the slope-style events at Sochi Resort.
Fitzgerald, along with his colleague Uwe Beier, the Snowboard Race Director for FIS, has been working with FIS and the organisers of the upcoming Winter Olympics on a venue plan. The FIS
personals are making an effort to convince IOC that slopestyle can safely be added to the Olympic program by going over the various details of the resort and slopestyle’s adaptability to it. This includes the technical and spatial aspects of the new trail
and assessment of logistics that has created doubts in the IOC’s mind.
The 2014 Winter Olympics President and CEO, Dmitry Chernyshenko, is also in favour of slopestyle’s addition to the program, saying, “This is a good opportunity for the Russian team to
be on the podium with more gold medals.”
The FIS, IOC and 2014 Sochi organisers have placed several key factors on the table, which include the cost of a new venue, scheduling, the impact of more athletes, the logistics of adding
a course and the use of the finish areas.
“I think we can show how all of this can be done using the existing design of the slopes," Fitzgerald said, "and getting more value out of the finish area and get TV programming aimed
at a young audience.”
IOC will be sending its’ own panel of experts to Sochi Resort to assess the logistics and determine the feasibility of holding slopestyle event. The final decision on the matter will be
taken after the panel submits its’ report. The fate of ski and snowboard slope-style’s place in the 2014 Olympic Games will be decided in May.
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