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St. Moritz To Host 2017 World Ski Championships

St Moritz has been announced the successful bidder of the three European resorts competing to host the 2017 Alpine World Ski Championships.


By Patrick Thorne

31 May 2012


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St Moritz has been announced the successful bidder of the three European resorts competing to host the 2017 Alpine World Ski Championships.

 

St Moritz has hosted the Championships on four previous occasions since first staging them in 1934 and had been a contender for the next two Championships, which will be staged in Schladming, Austria, next winter and in Beaver Creek / Vail in Colorado in 2015.  St Moritz last staged the Championships in 2003.

 

The decision was made by the FIS Council on Thursday at the 48th International Ski Congress in Kangwonland, Korea.  St Moritz received 12 votes to achieve an absolute majority in the first ballot against Are in Sweden, the only other remaining candidate following the dramatic last minute withdrawal from the process by Italy’s Cortina d’Ampezzo.

 
“The step taken was not an easy one, but in difficult moments it is crucial being strong, determined and showing courage. Following the unwritten rule of rotating the FIS events between its member federations, we realised that it is not Cortina’s turn this time around,” commented Italian Ski Federation President, Flavio Roda.

 
“Withdrawing the bid also means having plenty of time to present our UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019 in its best shape. Especially, we would like to highlight our work regarding new ski lifts connecting the valleys of the Dolomites and, thus, creating real legacies.”

 

In addition to St Moritz’s success, Kulm (Austria) and Sierra Nevada (Spain) were unanimously elected as hosts of the 2016 FIS Ski Flying World Championships and joint FIS Freestyle Ski & Snowboard World Championships 2017, respectively.

 
The Nordic World Ski Championships will be hosted by Lahti (Finland), which took this honour in the third ballot with 12 votes ahead of Planica (SLO).

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Patrick Thorne
Patrick Thorne (News Editor) - Patrick has been a full time, year round, professional ski writer for 25 years. Nicknamed “The Snow Hunter” he has located 6,000 ski areas in 80 countries and for the past decade has published a weekly bulletin of stories from ski resorts all around the planet, notching up more than 5,000 reports. He has written a dozen books on skiing, received several awards, had his work translated in to more than 20 languages and was named “One of 20 People To know in Ski” by The Times.


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