There is already a fight about the new team combination: 130 ski stars compete in the controversial points mode

The format, in which a speed specialist and a slalom skier form a team, each do one run and add up the times, was tested at the recent Junior World Championships. The FIS board then decided at the spring meeting in Croatia that the TC (English abbreviation for “Team Combined”) would participate in the World Cup for the first time next winter.

Crans-Montana is the location for the ladies, Kitzbühel for the men’s premiere. Walter Reusser, CEO Sport at Swiss Ski, told Blick at the time: “The idea for this format comes from the athletes who developed the regulations. So I think it’s a good thing.”

The entire world elite is against the points mode

But now this: Before the FIS meeting this week in Zurich, a request from the athletes appeared that clearly contradicts Reusser’s claim – a list includes the names of 130 racers who argue against the points allocation method in the team combination!

The ski stars do not want the TC to be included in the discipline and the general World Cup classification. In addition to international top players such as Mikaela Shiffrin (USA), Sofia Goggia (It), the Austrian Vincent Kriechmayr and the Norwegian super moose Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, Henrik Kristoffersen and Lucas Braathen, our superstar Marco Odermatt and Daniel Yule, Loic Meillard, Justin Murisier, Gino Caviezel and Luca Aerni against the FIS leadership.

Slalom hero Daniel Yule’s statement: “It is true that I have spoken out in favor of including the team combination on the World Cup calendar. But it is not true that we, drivers, have worked out the regulations. I was never asked about the scoring.”

Yule and his teammates assumed that the TC points would only be credited to the Nations Cup account. But the FIS wants the points achieved in this combination to be divided between both drivers and also included in the individual classification.

But in the eyes of Shiffrin, Odermatt, Kilde, Yule and Co. this is a distortion of competition. «Skiing is first and foremost an individual sport. It should not be the case that points from a team competition can be decisive for victory in the individual downhill or slalom classification, especially since some slalom stars are not allowed to start in the team combination at all,” Yule complains.

The winner of last year’s Kitzbüheler Slalom mainly thinks of Greece’s second world champion, AJ Ginnis, the English David Ryding (Hahnenkamm champion 2022) and the Slovakian high flyer Petra Vlhova. This top trio will have to watch the TC because there are no downhillers in the Greek, British or Slovak teams. Walter Reusser explains why the FIS still wants to stick to the points mode. “It is important that all stars start with this team combination. But that will only be the case if the points benefit not only the national ranking, but also the individual ranking.

Yule and Ginnis distinguish the FIS argument

Yule responds: “In Kitzbühel, all slalom cracks will want to participate in the team combination on Friday, because in the special slalom on Sunday it is an advantage if you can ski over the race track at racing speed. And if there is one less training ride on the program for the descent, most speed heroes will almost certainly participate in the TC descent.”

Concerned AJ Ginnis offers two other proposed solutions. “If the regulations stipulate that only athletes who have competed in this discipline at the World Championships are allowed to compete for a medal in the team combination at the Olympic Games, then most top athletes would participate.” And Ginnis also points out that the TC couple does not have to come from the same country: “Equal opportunities could also be created if, as a Greek, I were allowed to compete in the TC with a Swiss, Austrian or Norwegian, for example in tennis doubles. »

Can Ginnis actually participate in the team combination with Odermatt, Kriechmayr or Kilde in Kitzbühel? Or maybe the points mode will be changed again? The final decision will be made on Friday afternoon in Zurich.