The Alpine Skiing World Cup finals begin in Courchevel this morning with the men’s downhill followed by the women’s downhill on the Eclipse piste. For the director of the February 2023 worlds in Courchevel-Méribel, Perrine Pelen, these five days are an opportunity to test key sectors in a reduced version.
How is the atmosphere in Courchevel for this first day of the World Cup final: festive? Focused?
Perrine Pelen: we are quite impatient. Knowing that in the preamble to this descent, we had two training sessions which were extremely positive. This was an opportunity to salute the tremendous work done by the track preparation teams, and the sports management of the organizing committee, namely the Courchevel Sports Club on this track L’Eclipse de three kilometers. Here we have the 25 best men and women of the season in Courchevel today and tomorrow, then in Méribel from Friday for the team parallel and then the technical events on Saturday and Sunday.
Winter vacation is over. Is there still an audience?
Yes, we have set up a ticket office with a fairly wide range of offers and I can tell you that today, these offers are all gone. But there are still possibilities to come and watch the races on the edge of the track. We expect even more people as a good number of specialty globes have not yet been awarded. At the level of the big globe, that is to say the general classification of the World Cup, as much for the men the victory is acquired for the Swiss Marco Odermatt, as much for the ladies, there is a fight between the Slovak Petra Vlhova and the ‘American Mikaela Shiffrin. We expect very, very high level races and a guaranteed show.
So precisely we say that these finals are a general rehearsal for the Worlds next year, what does that mean?
Talking about a “dress rehearsal” is not quite appropriate insofar as, if we consider the budget, we are in a ratio of one to eight. But it will be an opportunity to test key sectors such as sport, in Courchevel with this new track. Same thing on Méribel for the technical disciplines. The goal is to be able to prepare the conditions so that the athletes can give the best of themselves and above all, respect fairness. That’s what’s most important when you have an appointment every two years. Afterwards, there is another sector that we are going to test, it is TV production in Courchevel. Since this is the first time that everything will be put into images and relayed by TVs around the world.
And then of course the volunteer program which brings together more than 600 people will be very watched. It allows you to identify the key people who will return next year. We didn’t need to do a lot of communication. For the worlds next year we will need double, 1200 volunteers. They are part of the success of the event. Without volunteers, the organization could not function.