Confronting Val d'Isere's Face de Bellevarde - Behind the Scenes - Men

If last year the Val d'Isere men's races were marked by heavy snowfalls, changes in program; this year all everyone is talking about is ice.

The famous Face de Bellevarde slope, which hosted the technical disciplines during the 2009 World Championships, proved to be as difficult and icy as they come in World Cup. The Organizing Committee was blessed with dry weather and cold temperatures in the weeks prior to the event, allowing them to prepare a fantastic and unbelievably icy slope for this weekend races.

With a superb second run, where he held nothing back, Marcel Hirscher took home his first giant slalom victory of the season.


The FIS Alpine Ski World Cup is the top international circuit of Alpine Skiing competitions staged annually. It is considered the premier competition in alpine ski racing together with the quadrennial Olympic Winter Games and the biennial FIS Alpine World Ski Championships. Some experts event consider winning the World Cup to be athletically a more valuable title than winning gold at the Olympic Winter Games or the World Championships, since it requires a competitor to ski at an extremely high level in several events throughout the season, and not just in one race. Today, the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup races are held primarily at famous ski resorts in the European Alps, along with regular stops in Scandinavia, North America, and Far East Asia. Competitors attempt to score a maximum of points during the season in five events: slalom, giant slalom, super-G, downhill and super combined. The fifth event, super-combined, was introduced in 2005 and generally consists of a shorter downhill race and a one-run slalom. Sometimes the downhill is replaced by a super-G. Alpine was added to the Olympic winter schedule in 1936.

For further information about FIS Alpine visit:
http://www.fis-ski.com/alpine-skiing/

Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/fisalpine

Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/fisalpine