Overview
- FIS president Alexander Ospelt has proposed staging alpine World Championships in every non‑Olympic year to boost income for athletes and smaller ski nations and to open markets such as China, Japan and South Korea.
- German skiers Emma Aicher and Kira Weidle‑Winkelmann and DSV head coach Andreas Puelacher publicly rejected the proposal on Saturday, saying the season from mid‑November to late March is already full and leaves little time to recover.
- Athletes and coaches warned that adding championships would increase fatigue, raise the risk of dangerous crashes, force skiers to skip events and encourage specialization that could harm the sport’s competitive balance.
- Several top racers, including Mikaela Shiffrin and Marco Schwarz, have already announced plans to skip some World Cup races this season as they manage their schedules, underscoring immediate tensions over load management.
- Opponents offer alternatives such as redistributing existing races to include more speed events, improving race presentation to lift revenue, and creating clearer recovery windows rather than simply adding more championships.