It will not be the inauguration of the Ski Jumping World Cup as fans know and remember. The fight for the crystal ball will begin on Friday at Cunningbut no snow. The FIS believed that the best jumpers in the world would start the season on plastic mats and ice tracks. For some, in conditions where competitions should not be played, let alone include them in the most important cycle. For others, a reality that can affect almost all competition organizers in an instant jump.
There was to be a quarter of a million savings in the Vistula, and there will be a “large bill”
The idea of the plastic winter mats was accepted in April. Wisła, since appearing in the World Cup in 2016, has struggled to find a suitable place in calendar. Because the March deadline did not suit them, they also did not play the competition inaugurating the season with the costly production of artificial snow. The most wanted people love Zakopane: in the middle of winter, in early or mid-January. When it was not yet won, the solution came at first it sounded like april fools to the heads of the competition committee. But they quickly began to realize that a lot of good could come out of the first-ever hybrid World Cup competition.
– After the increase in prices for energy use and annual snow production for a date that did not satisfy us, we still spent a lot of money to prepare the installation well for the competition. And the solution that the FIS wants to use this year is a great relief for us. We will even save a quarter of a million zlotys on this – Andrzej Wąsowicz, the director of the Wisła facility, said at the time.
Now, however, the president of the Silesian-Beskid Ski Association is less positive. All because of the effects of the war in Ukraine or inflationary increases in prices, even for energy. – We save where we can. The decision to inaugurate without snow brought us some advantages, we don’t have to produce it as early as usual. But women’s competitions represent an additional expense. The main problem is the prize pools, because the Swiss franc is currently very high. And of course you have to shine the light during the competitions and the preparations that precede them. I’m afraid that a week after the competitions we will receive a large bill – worries Wąsowicz.
The hill is ready, although the tracks have recently been sinking. And the FIS clumsily avoids the World Cup
But the head of the organizing committee confirms: Wisła is and will be ready. The first test of the facility took place on Wednesday evening under conditions similar to those the players will experience during practice and qualifying on Friday. – In the morning, the slope preparation team worked from 6:00 a.m. The temperature was 5-6 degrees in the morning and it wasn’t too bad on the ice tracks – Wąsowicz told us.
This is much better information than what appeared last weekend. Then, 20 marches into the Vistula, the tracks had to sink. They had completely melted and had to be saved. – Fortunately, these latest forecasts we have received show that it will not be too hot, nor that there will be any surprises with excessive cold. It should be around 12-13, minimum 10 degrees. It’s like that now and the temperature will be appropriate – said the activist.
Where does the need to organize the fastest inauguration of the World Cup in history come from? The FIS says: World Cup. But it only starts on November 20. It was possible to organize the competition over two consecutive weekends in November. However, activists from the international federation asked the Poles about the most suitable date, and the Polish Ski Association indicated the days from November 4 to 6. The FIS should have and wanted to postpone the entire first period of the World Cup – the competitions in Wisła, Ruce, Titisee-Neustadt and Engelberg – to a later date, but they failed. Even the plan to avoid a collision with the World Cup has been made very tentative. So that some of them will also fail: as long as the competitions in Ruce and Titisee-Neustadt take place in the morning and do not coincide with the matches in Qatar, the first of those disputed in Engelberg will begin at the same time as the match for third place in the FIFA World Cup.
“Ski jumping as we know it will disappear. It will become a summer sport”
FIS activists also appreciate the uniqueness of the whole project. They explain that this is a new challenge for the whole show jumping environment and maybe a big test for the future. Because global warming and lack of snow may make the World Cup under plastic cover an increasingly common sight. Maybe not in a year, not in two or three seasons. But in the long term it is quite possible.
– This is only the first step. If climate change progresses as fast as it has so far, and we know it is inevitable, ski jumping as we know it will disappear – says Sport.pl Milos Sterle from Top Speed, who prepared the ice tracks installed on the hill of Wisła. – There will be only “jumps” and they will become a summer sport. I think soon no one will even bother with installing ice tracks. They will be just ceramic and plastic mats at the bottom. The FIS prefers to keep it as a winter sport, because if it passes to the summer disciplines, it will also have to count for the Summer Olympics. And there are many more sports and less space for this type of competition – assesses the Slovenian.
The Wisła organizers have a big challenge ahead of them. The situation seems under control, but it’s not hard to imagine two scenarios in which he could easily escape. “The first is a sudden warming,” underlines Milos Sterle. We ask him: Vistula or Planica, which installation is more difficult to prepare? – In Planica, the situation is even worse, because the racing competition takes place in March, in the morning, so the sun heats the tracks and melts the ice cover, regardless of its size. Moreover, there is no technology like that purchased in Poland. After all, there are no ice tracks, only natural tracks, which easily melt, are destroyed. If they had the equipment used in the Vistula, they would have no problem leaving the competition. But I still think that the problems in Poland can be much bigger – he believes.
The warming and the possible lack of control over the water and its distorting tracks are one thing. – Another thing is that if the temperature goes the other way: it drops below zero and it’s cold, the water covered with plastic mats will freeze. It doesn’t even have to be very visible, but at the bottom of the hill a skating rink can easily be created. And the problem of landing, although there is no artificial hard snow, will not go away – notes Sterle. The organizers, however, assure us that they are aware of this and do not expect such a situation in the establishment named after Adam Małysz.
Key equipment for the hybrid system in Wisła. “Many can act by trial and error”
However, not only those who will take care of the hill have to be prepared for the unusual start of winter in ski jumping. It is also a challenge for the players themselves and the teams preparing the equipment. – I would have thought, in their place, if it was necessary to choose a system adapted to this system Skis prepared as for the summer or winter season. Maybe a compromise? wonders Milos Sterle. – This is a task for servismen: what will they put on the skis, what exact model will they take. Many of them can be performed by trial and error. They will try something one day, they will already know that the next has to change something. That’s why equipment and conditions can have such a big impact on the results of these competitions, he notes.
The Slovenian also shows another darker side of the now crucial importance for jumpers to approach the threshold. – This may seem strange, but probably an inrun hazard: in the form of unevenness, stagnation in the tracks, it is now much more difficult for players to control than landing after landing. There, you are able to save yourself, to support yourself, to organize yourself differently. You can’t even predict the direction in which it may bend you after a possible fall, before taking off. Year after year, driving on the slopes will become more and more unpredictable, Sterle explains.
Crowds at unofficial training. But there are no Poles
This year, although there were no open training sessions in the last days before the competition in Wisła, the organizers have opened up to the needs of the installation test by the jumpers and will organize two unofficial sessions Thursday. In the first, in the morning, a record number of players will appear. Officially, there are 41 on the list, but Andrzej Wąsowicz told us there could be up to 50. Real crowds. However, the Poles will not appear. – Thomas Thurnbichler said they don’t need any extra jumps yet. If they changed their minds, there would be no problems – assured the director of the hill.
The jumping experience in Wisła will start on Friday November 4 with practice and qualifications. Then, on Saturday November 5 and Sunday November 6, two individual competitions for men and women will take place. Live coverage on Sport.pl and in the Sport.pl LIVE app.
