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INFOGardena COME TO VAL GARDENA
From February 7th to 15th 1970, the 21st Alpine Ski World Cham pionships were held in Val Gardena. A good 4 years earlier, in 1966, the 3 valley communities of Selva, Santa Cristina and Ortisei decided to put their name forward to host the event, competing with a number of famed ski resorts including Davos (Swit zerland), Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Germany), Kitzbühel (Austria), Banff (Canada), Naeba (Japan) und Jackson Hole (USA). On May 20th 1967, at the FIS Congress in Beirut (Lebanon), the final decision was made, and the ho
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nour of hosting the Alpine Ski World Championships was granted to Val Gardena. Alongside the local athletes, one of the driving forces in the organisation of the World Ski Championships was Tschucky Kerschbaumer, Edmund Dellago and Erich Demetz, who later went on to become FISI Vice Presi dent, CO.SCU.MA Commissioner and President of the FIS World Cup Com mittee. Athletes from 28 different nation participated in the Champion ships, and six races were held on the slopes of Val Gardena. The men’s and women’s slalom took place on the Ronc slope on Ortisei; the men’s and women’s giant slalom was held on the No.3 slope of the Ciampinoi. The women’s downhill was raced on the Cir slope of the Dantercepies, ending in Vallunga, while the men’s downhill was held on the Saslong slope. The vi ctory for both the men’s and women’s downhill went to Switzerland with Bernhard Russi and Annerösli Zyrd. Austria’s Karl Schranz took the men’s giant slalom title, while Betsy Gifford from Canada won the women’s event, Jean-Noel Augert sped to victory in
the men’s slalom, and Ingrid Lafforgue in the women’s slalom. The 1970 World Ski Championships were not only a noteworthy mile stone in the history of the valley, but also constituted and important stage in the organisation of major sporting events for a number of reasons, one being that electronic timing equip
ment had been used for the first time in skiing history; this meant that data could be transferred as quickly as possible with no errors, and made it possible to inform the public, press and television of times and ratings in a fraction of a second: An incredible breakthrough for those times! The immense success of this sporting
event shone the spotlight not only on the outstanding environmental, social and economic structure of the area but, and above all, on its organisatio nal ability. The thorough, painstaking work of the organising committee together with the local authorities, associations and volunteers ensured that the event ran on smoothly-oiled wheels, prompting the International Ski Federation (FIS) to hold other events on the Val Gardena slopes. Ever since, the Saslong downhill has remained a permanent event in the international World Cup calendar. In hosting the 1970 Alpine World Ski Championships, Val Gardena furthe red its tourist development to the extent that, in just a few decades, the small valley in the heart of the Dolo mites has become one of the most beautiful and well-loved winter tourism destinations.
Sara Senoner
