So in an interview this week FIS Chief Race Director Markus Waldner disclosed that the FIS will tighten the radius on GS sis for the start of the 2017 season. I, among many on this site, was appalled when they went to 35m skis. Having said that, I actually think that Ted along with Heads R&D team have moved the sport forward on 35m skis. I think its fair to say that the vast majority of WC racers are not skiing their best on 35m skis. But the top 4-5 guys are doing things on 35m skis that we had never seen before. If you go back and look at GS in the early 2000s when they were still on 21m skis, you did not see anywhere near the angles that guys have been forced to get with the 35m skis. So these 5 or so guys have absolutely taken the sport to a new level.
I think we should probably all view this as a good step and one that will make a larger part of the field be able to arc a lot more of the gates.
Here is part of the interview:
The giant slalom ski regulations have been discussed a lot. Where are we on that topic?
We had couple of meetings about the new ski regulation for giant slalom skis. We had to collect all the data, both from the original research from Salzburg and from the Trauma Center in Norway, to evaluate the feedback from athletes, teams and SRS. Fact is, there has been an evolution and the 35 meter radius skis are not working anymore – not only on the World Cup, but especially on the lower level. Things are going in the right direction now, the main stakeholders are in favor of a change. For the first time, the ski brands are on the same page, and a significant majority of the athletes – 90 percent according to a survey of the athletes’ commission – agree to the proposal to go back to 30 meters from Soelden 2017 on. One of the only barriers to this proposal is the timing of the change. Some would like to make the change in the season after the Olympics.