Para winter sports-hardly any space for inclusion in winter sports

Anna-Lena Forster is undoubtedly the star of German Para winter sports scene. The 29-year-old Monoskibob driver from Radolfzell has already won four times Paralympics gold, plus nine World Cup titles. On Saturday, Forster missed her tenth World Cup gold by 1.74 seconds. At the Para Alpin World Championship in Maribor, it was enough in the giant slalom “only” to silver. The first good news was that the para athletes were allowed to start at all.

Due to snow defects and too high temperatures, the disciplines departure, combination and Super-G had to be canceled in Slovenia. At least in the giant slalom and slalom, the World Cup competitions are still taking place. However, you will not see many moving pictures or read texts in public. The extraordinary achievements of the sports stars with disabilities still have little attention apart from the Paralympics.

A year before the start of the winter games in Milan and Cortina, this ensures frustration in the scene. »It would be important that we have more races that take place in the context of European Cups or World Cups of non -disabled people. It would be feasible if it were wanted, «said protagonist Forster before the World Cup. “I also have the impression that the Ski World Association FIS could do more.” In the alpine area, this criticism is entirely justified. At least in the cross -country skiing, the World Association shows that there is another way.

On March 4th and 5th, gold medals will be awarded for the first time on the large stage of the Nordic Ski World Cup in Trondheim in the Para-Skilanglauf sprint. »At FIS we are fully committed to promoting inclusion. The inclusion of para events in large championships is in line with our mission to upgrade all facets of snow sports, «said the International Ski Association on request. Sandra Spitz, sports and event director of the FIS, added: »There could be different scenarios for the inclusion. We should take the time to evaluate the situation in Trondheim in 2025 to achieve the best result for para athletes and non-disabled people and lead a dialogue with future hosts. «

That sounds promising, at least for the cross -country skiing area. In alpine skiing, where the world championships of non-disabled people are currently taking place in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, FIS evaluates the situation differently: “Although the example of Trondheim 2025 is inspiring, the requirements of alpine skiing differ significantly from the Nordic disciplines,” it says from the world association. When it comes to para-skiing, softer surface conditions are required than in competitions for non-disabled people, which makes it difficult to carry both events on the same slope at the same time. For neither groups there should be “compromises in terms of security and performance quality”.

For the time being, the dream of common alpine competitions seems to stay far away for Anna-Lena Forster and Co. Inclusion in the season highlights of the non-disabled would automatically mean more spectator interest, TV pictures and sponsors. So far, the FIS has not even made a TV broadcast at the Para-Alpin World Cup because the costs are too high for many organizers.

It looks similarly bad for the inclusion of the sports stars with disabilities in biathlon. While the Para World Cup is currently also taking place in Slovenia, the non-disabled people will carry out their title fights in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, from Wednesday. One problem here is the sometimes different course of shooting: While the overall World Cup leader Franziska Preuss and Co is shot, for example, the visually impaired para biathlete with laser weapons and only using their hearing aim.

Consolation for inclusion for the Para ski hunters: Many of them also start in para cross-country skiing and there is the biggest event in Trondheim in the history of sport apart from the Paralympics in early March.