Crans-Montana, Switzerland cancels night race due to energy crisis

The Crans-Montana night slalom is a crowd favourite, held in an elimination style format, image: Valais.ch

The Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana, located in the French-speaking canton of Valais, was forced to cancels its annual FIS night slalom.

The event was scheduled for January 11, 2023 and is an annual highlight for international alpine athletes, who request an invitation to this exclusive event for the world’s elite every year. The event is also a crowd favorite as it is designed in a knockout format. Last year’s winner was Sweden’s Kristoffer Jakobsen.

Kristofer Jakobsen
Swedish Kristofer Jakobsen during his winning night slalom in 2022 in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, image: @worldcupcransmontana Page Instagram

The event organizers stress that it was a difficult decision to make, but given the energy crisis in Europe, they felt that it was not possible to carry out the race. The Swiss federal government has required all businesses and individuals to reduce their energy consumption by 10% by March 2023, and the lighting needed to host the nighttime event would have sent the wrong message during a crisis. global energy.

The organizing committee hopes to be able to organize the event again in 2024. Meanwhile, their other FIS events, such as the Women’s Downhill World Cup on February 25-26, 2023, will not be affected and will go ahead as planned.

Crans-Montana is a regular on the FIS World Cup circuit and will host the coveted World Championships in 2027. The ski resort has just received a loan from the local canton to rebuild the finish area for a total of CHF 14.5 million (USD 14.5 million). The last time Crans-Montana hosted the World Cup was in 1987, 40 years earlier.

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