After the embarrassing cancellation of the women’s opener: the Swiss put pressure on the world federation

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The bobsled start in China resonates. The reason: the shockingly small mini starting field for the men with eleven teams and the disaster for the women, whose race had to be canceled in advance due to too few participants.

The fact that many teams simply cannot afford the costs of the long trip abroad and therefore prefer to participate in the North American Cup or the European Cup is only half the story. The international association IBSF paid the costs of the freight to China. The Swiss association accuses the absent World Cup participants of laziness. “This behavior is harmful to our sport. Swiss Sliding and other countries have already discussed this problem locally with the IBSF and made concrete suggestions for solutions.”

It didn’t work through cost leverage

The purpose of the measures is clear: tightening the regulations that will lead to mandatory participation in all World Cup matches. Because Yanqing clearly showed that it was not possible to get a fairly decent field of participants through the cost lever. Because last winter the World Cup races in the USA and Canada took place with embarrassing mini starting fields. The world association subsequently made concessions on freight costs.

Now the Swiss and other powerful associations such as the German are putting even more pressure on the IBSF. The demand on the table is to tighten the qualification guidelines for world championships and the Olympic Games. In the same way, permanent participation in all races worldwide becomes virtually mandatory and the European Cup and the North American Cup are given more of the function for which they were actually intended: promoting young talent.

Swiss Sliding concluded in a statement: “The IBSF must ensure in its regulations that the best teams compete with each other at the World Cup and that some teams do not choose the path of convenience and compete in the European Championship and NAC.”

Source : Blick