The 2020-21 season of the Alpine Ski World Cup restarts next Saturday and Sunday as always from the Austrian Rettenbach glacier in Soelden.
And it inevitably restarts in the sign of the coronavirus with serious security measures even though it is a sport without physical contact and definitely in the open air.
The first precautionary measure adopted was to cancel the traditional November-December trip to Canada and the United States by rescheduling the races in Europe.
For the women's giant on Saturday and the men's giant on Sunday, fans and enthusiasts will have to rely more than ever on TV images.
In fact, there will be no public in the Soelden stands but only 200 selected guests.
For the rest there will be three different '' bubbles '' of protection to ensure the distancing: athletes and technicians, organizers, media.
In addition, the inevitable obligation to buffer with all Italians already negative results in Solden.
The experience of managing Soelden's anti-covid measures - one week in advance of the races compared to the traditional appointment of the last weekend in October - will therefore inevitably be a conclusive test for the organization of future other races on the calendar.
Among these, the Italian ones will have a more important role than usual because at the center of the season there is, in February, the World Championship in Cortina d'Ampezzo between 8 and 21 February.
The other Italian stages are for men the usual ones of Val Gardena, Alta Badia, Madonna di Campiglio and Bormio between 18 and 29 December.
For women, however, only the Plan de Corones on 26 January.
The hope is obviously that the whole long cup season can be played regularly but no one in FIS hides that a flare-up of the pandemic could upset the calendar.
And this also regardless of what the health conditions of the athletes will be.
In fact, the decisions of governments on the freedom of movement from one country to another are expected.
Germany, for example, has in fact already declared the Tyrol, the Land where Soelden is located, a '' risk zone ''.
With this initiative, Berlin advises its compatriots not to travel to these regions, an indication currently without consequences.
But from November 8, the German government has decided that those who go to the areas at risk will have to undergo five days of quarantine and test negative for a swab upon returning to Germany.
If things do not change for the better due to the pandemic, there is thus the risk that already for the first races after Soelden, the parallel men and women of 13 and 14 November in Lech, there will be at least important defections.
Indeed, Lech is also in Tyrol.
