Saslong is a

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

downhill ski course in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

just above Val Gardena/Gröden. Located on the

Langkofel Langkofel (; ; ; 3,181 m) is the highest mountain of the Langkofel Group in the Dolomites in South Tyrol, Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It co ...

in the

Dolomites The Dolomites ( ), also known as the Dolomite Mountains, Dolomite Alps or Dolomitic Alps, are a mountain range in northeastern Italy. They form part of the Southern Limestone Alps and extend from the River Adige in the west to the Piave Va ...

, the race course made its World Cup debut in February

1969 1969 ( MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1969th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 969th year of the 2nd millennium, the 69th year of the 20th century, and the ...

. The ski course is named after the mountain Saslonch (, ) with an adapted spelling.

Franz Klammer Franz Klammer (born 3 December 1953) is a former champion alpine ski racer from Austria. He dominated the downhill event for four consecutive World Cup seasons (1975– 78). He was the gold medalist at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, ...

and

Kristian Ghedina Kristian Ghedina (; born 20 November 1969) is an Italian alpine skiing coach and former competitive racer. His 13 victories are the second most by an Italian downhill (ski competition), downhill specialist in World Cup history: the first is Dom ...

won record 4 downhills and

Aksel Lund Svindal Aksel Lund Svindal (born 26 December 1982) is a Norwegian former World Cup alpine ski racer. Born in Lørenskog in Akershus county, Svindal is a two-time overall World Cup champion (2007 and 2009), an Olympic gold medalist in super-G at the 20 ...

record 5 super-G's.

Course sections

Spinel

This section starts as a very difficult jump short after the start, into the steepest section (56.9%

gradient In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar-valued differentiable function f of several variables is the vector field (or vector-valued function) \nabla f whose value at a point p gives the direction and the rate of fastest increase. The g ...

), then virtual change direction in mid-air to compression.

Saut dl Moro

A jump which takes skiers into the second compression.

Looping

Muri di Sochers

This section starts as a jump in the air, followed by a flat, yet intense, left-right-left gate combination ending at the 1st Mauer ("Wall"). Skiers jump ca. directly to the 1st Mauer and have to sway to the right to the 2nd Mauer. The jump on the 2nd Mauer contemporaneously serves as the entry into the flat section leading to the first Camel Hump with top speed at about .

Gobbe del Cammello (Camel Humps)

The

Camel A camel (from and () from Ancient Semitic: ''gāmāl'') is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. Camels have long been domesticated and, as livestock, they provid ...

Humps represent the most spectacular section of the Saslong. They were named by the late and former Austrian FIS TD Sepp Sulzberger.

Uli Spiess Urlich "Uli" Spiess (born 15 August 1955) is an Austrian former alpine skier. He is the brother of the former alpine skier Nicola Spiess and is the son of and Erika Mahringer. Career During his career he has achieved 22 results among the t ...

from Austria was the first athlete to attempt and succeed in jumping all three Humps at the same time instead of taking each jump separately. Since Spiess' premiere, skiers today mostly absorb the first jump (a.k.a. "Girardelli Line") and leap from the second over the third. The record jump belongs to Austrian skier Michael Walchhofer who leaped reaching a height of 4–5 meters in 2003.

Ciaslat

This section its corrugated ripples and bumps is where the race is often decided. In this extremely and technically very demanding section of the course racers face overall 17 different ripples.

Nucia (Tunnel)

Skiers take the Nucia jump into the final schuss following the exit from Ciaslat.

Schuss

The last and finals section of the course starts with jump that owes its name to the new tunnel that runs below the Final schuss and is part of the new street by-passing St.Christina which was opened in 2009.

World Cup

The first downhill winner in

was

Jean-Daniel Dätwyler Jean-Daniel Dätwyler (born 2 April 1945) is a Switzerland, Swiss former Alpine skiing, alpine skier and Olympic medalist. He received a bronze medal in the downhill at the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble.World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...

, which also counted for 1970 World Cup season points and wins/podiums statistics. On 23 March

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

, Saslong hosted the first parallel slalom in history,

Gustav Thöni Gustav Thöni (; sometimes listed as Gustavo Thoeni; born 28 February 1951) is an Italian retired World Cup alpine ski racer. Career Thöni was born in the German-speaking province of South Tyrol, in the hamlet of Trafoi of the Stilfs munici ...

won in front of 40,000, beating

Ingemar Stenmark Jan Ingemar Stenmark (; born 18 March 1956) is a Swedish former FIS Alpine Ski World Cup, World Cup Alpine skiing, alpine ski racer. He is regarded as a legendary skier and one of the most prominent Swedish athletes ever, having won several Oly ...

in the final.

Men

Women

Club5+

In 1986, elite Club5 was originally founded by prestigious classic downhill organizers:

Kitzbühel Kitzbühel (, also: ; ) is a town rights, medieval town situated in the Kitzbühel Alps along the river Kitzbüheler Ache in Tyrol (state), Tyrol, Austria, about east of the state capital Innsbruck and is the administrative centre of the Kitzbüh ...

Wengen Wengen () is a mountain village in the Bernese Oberland of central Switzerland. Located in the canton of Bern at an elevation of above sea level, it is part of the Jungfrauregion and has approximately 1,300 year-round residents, which swells t ...

Garmisch Garmisch-Partenkirchen (; ) is an Alpine ski town in Bavaria, southern Germany. It is the seat of government of the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen (abbreviated ''GAP''), in the Oberbayern region, which borders Austria. Nearby is Ger ...

, Val d’Isère and Val Gardena/Gröden, with goal to bring alpine ski sport on the highest levels possible. Later over the years other classic longterm organizers joined the now named Club5+:

Alta Badia Alta Badia is a ski resort in the Dolomites of northern Italy, in the upper part of the Val Badia () in South Tyrol. It is part of the Dolomiti Superski ski area. It is included in the territories of the municipalities of Corvara, Badia, and ...

, Cortina,

Kranjska Gora Kranjska Gora (; ) is a town in northwestern Slovenia, on the Sava Dolinka River in the Upper Carniola region, close to the Austrian and Italy, Italian borders. It is the seat of the Municipality of Kranjska Gora. The tripoint between Austria, It ...

Maribor Maribor ( , , ; also known by other #Name, historical names) is the List of cities and towns in Slovenia, second-largest city in Slovenia and the largest city of the traditional region of Styria (Slovenia), Lower Styria. It is the seat of the ...

, Lake Louise,

Schladming Schladming () is a small former mining town in the northwest of the Austrian state of Styria that is now a popular tourist destination. It has become a large winter-sports resort and has held various skiing competitions, including most notably th ...

Adelboden Adelboden is a mountain village and a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in Switzerland, located in the Frutigen-Niedersimmental (administrative district), Frutigen-Niedersimmental administrative district in the Bernese Highlands. Geogra ...

Kvitfjell Kvitfjell () is a ski resort in Norway, located in the municipality of Ringebu. Developed for the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, it is one of the most modern resorts in the world, with snowmaking on 80% of the alpine pistes. Based near ...

, St.Moritz and

Åre Åre () is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and one of the leading Scandinavian ski resorts situated in Åre Municipality, Jämtland County, Sweden with 3,200 inhabitants in 2018. It is, however, not the seat of the municipality, which is Järpe ...

References

External links

*
FIS Alpine Ski World Cup
– Val Gardena, Italy
Ski-db.com
- Val Gardena men's races {{Ski World Cup pistes Skiing in Italy Ski courses