Will the third World Ski Championships come to Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 2025?
The decision will be made on October 3rd.
Ski star Maria Höfl-Riesch is the World Cup ambassador, and in 2011 she was the big favorite on the slopes.
Great talent in the 2006 award.
Special memories.
The
venue for the Ski World Cup 2025 will be announced
on October 3, 5:30 p.m.
Ski star Maria Höfl-Riesch appears
as an ambassador
for Garmisch-Partenkirchen
.
She also
plays an important role
in the
application video about the heroes of the Kandahar
.
Update from October 3, 5:35 p.m.:
The 2025 World Ski Championships will take place in Saalbach-Hinterglemm.
This has just been announced by the International Ski Federation FIS.
Original article: Garmisch-Partenkirchen wants the Ski World Cup 2025 - ski star Maria-Höfl Riesch plays a special role
Garmisch-Partenkirchen
- In May 2006 Maria Riesch was 21 years old - and still a long way from her truly great successes.
She had won three World Cups by then.
But: She was already considered the ski racer of the future.
Logically, as a five-time junior world champion.
Felix Neureuther and she formed the most hopeful team in German skiing.
An ideal arc of suspense for a Ski World Cup in 2011 - at home, on the doorstep in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Check out this post on Instagram
Honored to represent my hometown @garmischpartenkirchen_official as the ambassador for the bid of the World Championships 2025. Today we recorded the clip of the presentation for the FIS Council on October 3rd.
Keep your fingers crossed 🤞🏼 @ skiworldcup_gap # gap2025 #worldchampionships #alpineskiing #mountains #alps #garmischpartenkirchen
A post shared by Maria Höfl-Riesch (@mariahoeflriesch) on Sep 16, 2020 at 10:00 am PDT
So the two were already part of the delegation that flew to Vilamoura in Portugal.
In the small town on the Algarve, known more for its golf courses and pubs in the marina than for winter sports, the decision was made on May 25th: 9: 6 against Schladming - unlimited jubilation and tears of joy from Peter Fischer and the enthusiastic members of the German applicant team, including the Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber.
After so many defeats in the previous decades, it had finally worked.
A little less enthusiasm, however, among the Austrians, who came two years later to the train.
Day of German Unity is the day of the decision for the Ski World Cup
14 years and a few months later, another such groundbreaking day is coming up: On this Saturday, October 3rd, the 30th day of German unity, a decision will be made again about the award of an Alpine Ski World Cup.
This time with less fuss.
Without beaches, without hotels, without shaking hands.
This time everything online, sober, almost anonymously via video stream.
Garmisch-Partenkirchen has thrown its hat into the ring again, again there is a competitor from Austria.
This time, however, there are three candidates: in addition to Saalbach-Hinterglemm, the French-speaking Swiss from Crans-Montana.
Maria Riesch is there again.
Resigned from active racing for six years now, married for six years, decorated with four Olympic and six World Championship medals.
In short: "Germany's most successful female ski racer", summarizes Peter Fischer, the head of the application committee.
Maria Höfl-Riesch is the face of Garmisch-Partenkirchen's bid for the World Cup
This Maria Höfl-Riesch forms the face of the World Cup application for 2025. She stands for her home community, in which she was shaped for her career.
“It's a great honor,” says the 35-year-old.
Especially since it is now actually the focus of the campaign.
She remembers 2006 well.
"We were with a strong team in Portugal, Rosi and Christian (Neureuther, editor's note) were one of them." Rosi Mittermaier took her part back then, sat on the podium, was part of the sextet that made the final presentation pulled through.
Her stumbling block is legendary: The second English sentence was over, the ski queen got stuck.
Nothing worked anymore.
Like a threader in a slalom.
But who, if not Mittermaier, could have saved the situation.
With her limitless charm, she wrapped the gentlemen of the FIS Council, the highest body, around her finger.
Picked them up in German too.
No less a person than Gian Franco Kasper, the FIS President, reassured Rosi - the ice was broken.
Maybe the scene of the 2006 World Cup awards.
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Marked by nervous tension: Peter Fischer with Edmund Stoiber and the host certificate.
© Christian Fellner
At that time Höfl-Riesch was still sitting in the back of the hall.
Watched what happened.
Now she has completed the role reversal.
The triple Olympic champion leads the application and accompanies the viewer in the almost ten-minute video.
A new experience even for women who are very active in the media.
“I really had respect for it.” Logical.
She was given the texts, "long passages in English," she says and laughs.
Like in a script.
Höfl-Riesch as an actress, so to speak.
But she mastered her part. “Brilliant,” notes Fischer.
"You could see that she is a professional through and through."
October 3: The decision on the 2025 World Ski Championships will be made online
Fischer never doubted for a second that the German model skier would be the right person for Garmisch-Partenkirchen's World Cup project.
“We had already talked at the home World Cup in February.
Maria immediately offered to support us. ”Of course, Fischer had to consult with us.
There was no question of his people, the German Ski Association also agreed.
"And the market town stayed out of it anyway."
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Maria Höfl-Riesch (back) in a festive mood after being awarded the contract in 2006 in Vilamoura.
© Christian Fellner
They contacted again in June to clarify the state of affairs.
It was now clear that there would be no congress in Thailand, maybe an emergency issue in Switzerland.
"It was said that we could perform there with six men," reports Fischer.
But this plan also failed.
“Now we have reached the end.” With the online version.
A horror for a cunning functionary like Fischer.
"The worst thing is: you sit there and can't do anything."
World Cup video from Garmisch-Partenkirchen: Heroes of the Kandahar - including Maria Höfl-Riesch
The presentation had to be prepared in no time at all.
"Really a spontaneous action," confirms Höfl-Riesch.
Only two weeks ago she came to Garmisch-Partenkirchen to get the scenes in the box.
But she was enthusiastic about the implementation.
“The storyline is really good, everything is done perfectly.” She mustn't reveal too much in advance.
Höfl-Riesch leads the viewer to the arenas of the 2011 World Cup, to the ski stadium, out to the Kreuzeck.
Again and again she moderates between the contributions.
The motto of the production - including the application: Heroes of the Kandahar, Heroes of the Kandahar.
“It's about how great the athletes think the races in Garmisch-Partenkirchen are, that they always like to come back.” In addition, it is about tradition and issues such as sustainability.
Impressions that Höfl-Riesch can only confirm from her own athletic life.
"Everything was always perfect here, the slope, the support for the racers, the great atmosphere at the finish." She herself was able to experience the spectacle of the home World Cup nine years ago.
“In the end it was a successful World Championship for me with two bronze medals,” she sums up by far.
“Of course, I had the big goal of becoming world champion at home.
But certain circumstances did not allow that. ”Höfl-Riesch fell ill, their starts hung by a thread.
Nevertheless, it was enough to get two bronze medals in the speed races at the beginning.
In the slalom she was ungrateful fourth.
"And yet it was an amazing experience to drive in front of the home crowd, to experience this euphoria."
October 3, 5:30 p.m .: the venue for the 2025 World Ski Championships is announced
Höfl-Riesch deeply regrets that the title fights for 2025 will now be awarded at an online conference of the World Ski Federation.
"Of course the situation is the same for all applicants, but it's a shame because you don't have any direct contacts, you don't meet and you can still do personal persuasion with one or the other."
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The big moment: Gian Franco Kasper opens the envelope.
In 2006 he pulled out the name Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Again on October 3rd, 2020?
© Christian Fellner
This also hurts fishermen the most.
"The mental stress remains the same," he says.
“But on site you can listen to the people and get a feel for the situation.
I'm someone who wants to be in contact with people. ”And so he has to suffer a little for the last few hours until the presentation on Saturday at exactly 4:05 pm and later until the announcement at 5:30 pm.
Ski World Cup 2025: Saalbach the favorite, Garmisch-Partenkirchen with a good application - "everything implemented perfectly"
He doesn't say much about the chances for the candidate Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Only: “Our application is good, with Maria we implemented everything perfectly.” The protagonist leans a little further out of the window.
“Saalbach has applied for the second time, we know what that means from our own experience from Vilamoura.” In plain language: That could be an advantage.
The awarding practices of the FIS are also well known.
"But we had by far the best application back then in Portugal and of course we hope that we can convince the council this time too."
In Switzerland, those responsible do not seem to have high hopes.
At least that's how the colleagues at the Berner Zeitung sum it up.
The World Cup has already been taken for them - to Saalbach-Hinterglemm.
"Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Crans-Montana will have no chance," the author speculates there.
He also makes it clear that the Swiss have already signaled that they will start the race again for 2027 and, if necessary, 2029.
They are not that far in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Because with a defeat, Fischer and Höfl-Riesch do not want to deal with each other in advance.
The Olympic champion is combative: "Garmisch-Partenkirchen needs a World Ski Championships." If the personal track record of the World Cup ambassadors were to be considered, the market town would have the edge: Höfl-Riesch ahead of Alexandra Meissnitzer (Saalbach) and Michelle Gisin (Crans- Montana) - that would be the order.