The measure by Zermatt Bergbahnen seems like an attempt to put pressure on the FIS after it canceled the November races.
There have been no races in Zermatt so far – and the elite riders are not allowed to train there this summer either.
Jean-Christophe Bott / Keystone
The wires were running hot: On Monday evening, the top of the Swiss Ski Association, Swiss Ski, found out about the Zermatt Bergbahnen’s far-reaching plans – and did everything they could to change the minds of those responsible.
Vain. The Swiss ski professionals – as well as their colleagues from foreign teams – will no longer be allowed to train on the Zermatt slopes from this summer. This is a bitter blow for Marco Odermatt, Lara Gut-Behrami and the other hundred-plus members of the Swiss elite squad: they also train on the Saas-Fee glacier and in Patagonia in the (European) summer, but according to unanimous opinion, the ski area offers the best conditions at the foot of the Matterhorn.
The background to the draconian measure is a recent decision by the International Ski Federation (FIS): it removed the four World Cup races planned for November from the calendar for the 2024/25 season. This comes after the Swiss premium destination was plagued by bad weather in the past two years: in 2022, the cross-border races had to be canceled due to a lack of snow. In 2023 there was more than enough snow, but the wind was too strong.
The mountain railways want to review the decision again in 2025
In both years only one training session could be carried out regularly. The unsafe conditions and the busy schedule led to a majority of athletes speaking out against the Zermatt races this spring – possibly also influenced by the polemics that the dredging work on the glacier had triggered.
But where is the connection between the FIS season planning and the training opportunities for professional skiers? When reading the unequivocally worded communiqué, one cannot help but interpret the decision as a defiant reaction and an attempt to put pressure on the FIS. Ultimately, the Zermatt mountain railways want to “reassess the summer of 2025 in line with the decisions of the FIS”. In other words: If the association includes the races in the calendar again, training will probably be allowed again.
However, the chairman of the Bergbahn board of directors, Franz Julen, does not want to know anything about a return coach: “I vehemently reject that. We do not act defiantly, but consistently. The top athletes rejected our offer. That’s why we welcome young riders from all nations and the regional associations even more than in the past,” he says. However, Julen does not hide the fact that he would have hoped for more support from the Swiss athletes for the Zermatt races – “after everything we have done for ski racing in the last few decades,” as he says.
In fact, summer training on the Zermatt Glacier is a fixture in almost all ambitious skiing nations. So they now have a bigger problem – especially the Swiss national team. So far it has enjoyed certain privileges, such as access to the slopes in the best weather conditions and with a larger team. This summer the training units would have even been expanded compared to last year. The hotel rooms were already booked.
Does Switzerland freely give away a trump card?
Swiss Ski is now correspondingly dismayed. “The decision is extremely painful for us. From our point of view, there are actually only losers,” says Alpine director Walter Reusser. Now you have to re-plan. That means: probably more training overseas and in Saas-Fee. However, at least for the speed disciplines, these destinations do not come close to the advantages of the Matterhorn slopes.
So are the Zermatt mountain railways punishing their “own” skiing nation disproportionately with their decision? “I’m not worried about the medium-term prospects of success,” says Julen. The squad is so broad and full of good young talent that it will be successful even without the Zermatt summer training.
If a competitive advantage is lost, the competitors benefit from it. In Austria, of course, people may not be happy. «The decision is regrettable for the entire ski world. Such an advantage doesn’t come from just one season,” says Herbert Mandl, the sporting director of the Austrian Ski Association. His teams wanted to stop in Zermatt in late summer this year – and now have to reschedule too. Financially, too, one cannot speak of a welcome relief. “With the air travel and all the material, training in South America is expensive,” he says.
Elsewhere, behind closed doors, people react in disbelief to the news from Switzerland. A well-informed person wonders whether it is really possible for Switzerland to give up such a trump card without being forced – or whether Zermatt simply wants to send a signal and will ultimately give in.