What is the major difference between ski training and ski competition? “You add a stopwatch and volunteers scattered around the track. ”
At the end of the line, Daniel Paul Lavallée is in all his senses. The general manager of Ski Québec Alpin has not slept overnight. The tightening of sanitary measures, announced Thursday evening, threw a cold shower on the provincial federation and its members. The CEO has written to every public body imaginable to try to save the start of the season for young Quebec skiers. In vain.
Faced with the surge in cases of COVID-19, the Legault government has decided to give free rein to the practice of sports, but by prohibiting the organization of competitions or tournaments. However, clashes between two teams are still permitted for indoor sports, provided the number of participants is less than 25.
This measure explicitly aims to limit or even ban gatherings. However, it falls into the same category of sports whose realities have absolutely nothing in common.
For example, hockey, basketball or even indoor soccer matches can take place. But skiers will be restricted to training.
However, Mr. Lavallée insists: “The context of training and competition is 90% the same. Banning competition is incomprehensible. ”
“Imagine a giant slalom track 250 m long and 45 m wide,” he continues. The track is closed at the top and bottom. There are safety nets. The entrance to the gate and the arrival area are controlled. There are never more than five or six athletes at the top at the start, never more than one at the finish, and never more than three on the course because of the safety intervals. We are talking about 10 athletes on a space equivalent to 20 soccer fields. Outside. While everyone is vaccinated. ”
Easy to manage
Even if competitions can bring together a hundred athletes, it is wrong to think that they are all gathered in the same place, at the same time, adds Mr. Lavallée. When a skier is no longer in the competition area, “he becomes a customer of the ski resort”.
“If there is a concern because of the spectators, we just have to decide that there won’t be any! These are very, very easy to manage, ”adds the CEO.
Mr. Lavallée felt “the soup heat up” in recent days, as the number of coronavirus infections skyrocketed in the province and rumors of new restrictions were in the air.
He said he felt his grievances had been heard at the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Higher Education, which oversee sports. In the office of Deputy Minister Isabelle Charest, they claim to have made “representations” in high places, but it is ultimately Public Health and the Prime Minister’s office who have the prerogative to decide.
To a written question from Press on the situation of alpine skiing and outdoor sports, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health and Social Services replied that “the measure is general for all sports because it is important to raise the bar to reduce contagion “.
Repercussions until the Olympics
The wish to reconnect with competition is not a whim, insists Ski Québec Alpin.
After a 2020-2021 season devoted exclusively to training, an absence of competition in 2021-2022 could push many skiers to abandon the competitive component.
“These young people are the generation of Olympians of 2026 and 2030,” recalls Daniel Paul Lavallée. We are demotivating them. It will have consequences for a long time. ”
To progress, elite level athletes over 16 must participate in competitions sanctioned by the International Ski Federation (FIS), in order to collect classification points. “When you improve your points, you get a better starting bib in your next race… They need to do FIS races if they want to progress,” explains the GM. The window of development for skiers is so small, they cannot waste another year. ”
Already, in the wake of the latest government announcements, four races that were to launch the season next week have been canceled in Saint-Sauveur and Mont-Tremblant. We halted the organization of these events, while the volunteers were to begin the development of the premises on Friday. Participants from the United States or other Canadian provinces were also warned to stay home.
Daniel Paul Lavallée affirms that the Federation would spare no effort to save the event at the last minute if Quebec announced a relaxation for outdoor sports. Because, he insists, competition is an “essential need in alpine skiing”.
“Even at club level, at the grassroots, young people train with a goal, that of shopping. And not just to line up the descents.