Three races, two slopes, a major logistical challenge

Organising a FIS Alpine Ski World Cup event is always a challenge. Organising two in parallel, on two separate slopes but with a single shared finish area, is a real balancing act. In Crans-Montana, the women’s downhill and super-G, contested on the Mont Lachaux slope, and the men’s downhill training sessions on the Nationale slope, will take place on the same day, requiring extremely precise organisation.

This coexistence requires constant coordination between separate teams, allocated by slope. As soon as one race ends, another group immediately takes over to dismantle, reinstall and adapt the set-up.

Priority given to women’s races over men’s training sessions

All in all, nearly seventy people are working simultaneously on the preparation of the two slopes, not including course workers, volunteers or the Picasso team. The workload is not evenly distributed depending on the layout. The Nationale slope, longer and more demanding in terms of safety and A-net installations, alone mobilises almost two thirds of the workforce. The Mont Lachaux slope nevertheless requires particular attention in certain more technical sections to be prepared. Between slope injection, watering, safety measures and advance slope preparation, the number of people involved has almost tripled compared to previous years.

In an ideal scenario, the men’s downhill training sessions will take place on Friday after the women’s downhill and on Saturday before the women’s super-G. However, a postponement can never be ruled out, which could lead to overlapping events. In that case, priority is naturally given to the races, and the entire finish area organisation is dedicated to them. Training sessions would then need to be adapted, potentially shortened and stopped before the intersection between the two slopes.

The finish area itself also had to be rethought. Without gaining additional space, its entire layout was redesigned to accommodate athletes, coaches, media and TV crews simultaneously. Grandstands, air fences and the finish line, which was notably moved further up the slope, were repositioned to improve circulation. Further adjustments will still be required for the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships Crans-Montana 2027.

A TV production almost tripled

From a television perspective, the challenge is just as impressive. “We have almost doubled the workforce,” summarise Julien Baszanger and Aurélien Vallotton, producer and chief director of the competitions for SSR. “Under normal circumstances, one slope requires between 25 and 30 cameras. This year in Crans-Montana, we are deploying nearly 60, with 31 cameras on the Nationale slope and 26 on Mont Lachaux.” This is accompanied by a major increase in equipment, more optical fibre, two podiums, five cranes in total and a dense network of technical cabinets installed every 500 metres along the slopes.

Above all, it is the production architecture that has scaled up. SSR, bringing together production and broadcast teams from RTS and SRF, has moved from two control rooms to five. “We have a final control room for the entire finish area, managing emotion, replays and storytelling, two intermediate control rooms each covering one slope live, and two start control rooms,” explains Julien Baszanger. The objective is to be able to manage complex scenarios, for example a race on one slope and a training session on the other, or even parallel events in the event of challenging weather conditions, whether this year or next year at the World Championships.

Accommodating everyone, a constant headache

Behind the scenes, logistics do not stop at the slopes and cameras. Accommodation represents another major challenge. “It is far more complex than usual,” acknowledges Magalie Perren, Head of Guest Services and Accommodation. The coexistence of women’s and men’s teams requires hotels to be booked for longer periods, often before the exact arrival dates of the athletes are known, which calls for delicate planning with hoteliers.

Some nights are fully booked when all teams are present at the same time. To limit cancellations, men’s and women’s teams are deliberately housed in the same establishments, which further complicates meal management. “Hotels must be ready to serve continuously between 11:00 and 15:00, as team schedules do not coincide. In alpine skiing, programme changes can always occur due to weather conditions.”

“The pressure is even greater as many teams wish to be accommodated in the same hotel as in 2027, particularly some women’s and men’s teams from the same country,” adds Magalie Perren. Last year, around 350 rooms were reserved for athletes, teams, the FIS, Swiss Timing, guests and sponsors. This year, that number has risen to 593 rooms, spread across three- to five-star hotels. And to meet the strong demand generated by the two weeks of World Championships competition in twelve months’ time, around 800 rooms for teams, the FIS and others, capacity will need to be increased further. With the arrival of smaller nations in particular, some teams will need to be accommodated in the valley, between Sierre, Sion and also Anzère.

This full-scale rehearsal offers a clear preview of the scale of the challenge awaiting Crans-Montana in 2027, when the resort will have to orchestrate the World Championships on an entirely different scale, forty years after the 1987 edition.