The alpine ski season ended on Sunday in Austria with another race cancellation due to weather conditions. This season has been one of all records in this area.
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The last stage in Saalbach, Austria, was to allow a decision to be made between Marco Odermatt and Cyprien Sarrazin, the two leaders of the Alpine Ski World Cup. The race was finally canceled due to weather conditions on Sunday March 25. Thanks to the lead he had in the rankings, it was the Swiss who won the Crystal Globe of the discipline, ahead of the Frenchman, without a final confrontation.
The season ended, as it began in Sölden, last October. This year, 16 races in total have been canceled (Zermatt-Cevina, Chamonix, Kranjska-Gora), five others have been postponed, in all the massifs in Europe but also in North America, which gives 21 races disrupted (on a total of 80). The number has doubled compared to the 2022-2023 season, which was already a record season in this area.
“It’s been complicated this year, confirms Cyprien Sarrazin. We will have to adapt and evolve. We can’t continue like this. We proved it again this year, but I can’t say much more. I I don’t have the solutions.”
Yet the resorts have tried everything: snow storage, trucking and snow cannons, salt and water injection into the track. Enough to give pause to broadcasters and sponsors who endorse and invest millions of euros in a sport that climate change is putting on hold.