A look back

The history of alpine skiing in Cortina d'Ampezzo crosses three ages

back to list

 

Date:	06/01/2015
Place:	Cortina d'Ampezzo

The history of alpine skiing in Cortina crosses three ages: it starts at the end of the 1800s, covers the 1900s and lives rather enchanting moments in the 2000s. If the first race was held in the 1901, in the next decades events of remarkable national and international importance followed one another till the World Championships in 1941, degraded due to the war, and more over the 7th Winter Olympic Games in 1956. Already in the 1954 the Cortina Ski Club organized the downhill “Coppa Illio Colli” to commemorate its young athlete predecease. Over the years the winners are the French René Collet, twice the Austrian Anton Sailer, twice the local idol Bruno Alberti and then Aldo Zulian, the French Gaston Perrot and the Austrian Karl Schranz. In 1963 Gaetano Coppi won and afterwards the Austrian Arald Rofner.

In the middle of the 1960s the slalom replaced the downhill. In 1969 the date of Cortina began to be part of the Ski World Cup. In 1975 ladies’ races took place: downhill, slalom, combined. The races followed one another till 1984 alternating men and ladies. It started again in 1990 with a replacement of two men’s downhill: Kristian Ghedina triumphed in the first one, it was his first Ski World Cup victory. That success convinced the organizers to restart: since 1993 it is a unbroken chain of ladies races. In this twenty-one years 71 races were held (29 downhill, 26 super G, 15 giant slalom and 1 slalom). In 1993 cause scheduled and reassigned races five com- petitions in eight days were held. Four consecutive competitions were organized in 1994, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2014 but the most exciting edition is always the incoming one: along the renew Olympia delle Tofane once again new races are waiting the 17th and 18th January. With a glance to the future!

by Marco Dibona | Credits Img: Archivio Storico Print House