Big Audi FIS Ski World Cup opening this weekend in Soelden

The opening of the 2017/18 Audi FIS Ski World Cup is lastly here. On 28^th and 29^th October, the brand-new season gets underway with males’s and a women’ huge slaloms on the Rettenbach glacier in Soelden (AUT).

Soelden is always a great chance for athletes to evaluate their summertime training. After months of preparation, both on and off the snow, athletes lastly have the opportunity to assess the kind and make their first World Cup points.

On the women’ side, Tessa Worley (FRA), Mikaela Shiffrin (U.S.A) and Sofia Goggia (ITA) might stroll away with the very first win of the season while on the guys’s side, Alexis Pinturault, Mathieu Faivre (both FRA), Felix Neureuther (GER) and Henrik Kristoffersen (NOR) have likelihoods to make a podium.

Due to pre-season injuries, some of the huge stars are losing out on the season opener. Lara Gut (SUI), Eva-Maria Brem, Anna Veith (both AUT), Ilka Stuhec (SLO), Marcel Hirscher, Philipp Schörghofer (both AUT), Carlo Janka (SUI) and Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (NOR) will not be starting in Soelden.

“The Rettenbach glacier is in the best shape we have actually seen in a long period of time”, stated FIS girls’ Chief Race Director Atle Skaardal. “A number of teams had the uncommon opportunity to train on the race slope last week prior to Sunday, when the racers were not allowed by rules to ski on the slope in advance of the scheduled competitions” he continued.

“Everybody raved about the shape that the slope is in, and winter-like conditions need to prevail in the location throughout today,” added the guys’s Chief Race Director Markus Waldner.

Numerous interview ahead

In the coming days, hundreds of reporters are expected to show up in Soelden and it will be a busy schedule preceeding the opening races. Many interview hosted by the FIS Ski World Cup partners, ski market business and leading professional athletes (click here)will be followed by the traditional FIS Online forum Alpinum on Friday, 27^th October (view information here).