In recent years the International Skiing Federation has shown that it's willing to take a few chances experimenting with new sports and events, from the addition of ski halfpipe to the World Cup freestyle calendar to the staging of big air competitions in urban areas like London, England.
The innovation has spread into alpine as well, with Moscow once again hosting a parallel slalom event this past Saturday on an artificial hill constructed in the city centre. The second annual Audi FIS Alpine Ski Champions Cup took place under the lights with 30,000 fans on the ground, and more than 4,000 cubic metres of snow shipped in refrigerated containers from Siberia.
Despite some rain and softer conditions the athletes adjusted and put on a good show.
The format is similar to parallel snowboarding races with athletes racing beside each other for two runs, switching courses in between heats to even things up. The athletes with the lowest combined time move on to the next round until just two skiers remain to compete for the win.
If a skier goes off course or falls in either run they are assessed a time penalty of 1.5 seconds instead of being disqualified, giving them a chance to make up the difference in the next run.
Whistler's Mike Janyk, who knows something about skiing in wet conditions, was one of the skiers invited to the event and climbed the ladder to the semi-finals.
"I was up against Giorgio Rocca in the first round, so not an easy guy to beat," said Janyk. "He made a mistake in the first run which gave me a little bit of a breather for the second leg, but not too much. The second run was a solid run for me and I moved on, then again to the semi-finals."
He lost that duel but went on to beat reigning world champion Manfred Pranger of Austria in the small final to place third overall. Meanwhile Marcel Hirshcer of Austria edged Steve Missilier of France in the final to take the win.
"I had a great run against (Pranger) in the first leg so I managed a gap of about nine hundredths of a second. It's not that much but it really put the pressure on him... and he didn't time his start right and barged out of the gate.
"It all happened so fast, you'd do a run, take the elevator back up to the start and in a minute or two you'd start again. There was no time to think or strategize."
Janyk enjoyed the format and would like to see more events like it on the calendar.
"It takes a lot of money to put on something like this but if they can do it that would be great," said Janyk. "It doesn't take a lot of imagination to picture something like this is in downtown Tokyo or other big cities. It's a unique way to showcase the sport and get people excited about skiing.
"It's just totally different racing head to head. If you're a little behind then you can try to catch up. And the starts are different from pro racing starts. You have to start turning right out of the gate and try not to barge. It's a different side of the sport, but it's cool any time you get to showcase the sport in a different light. You want people to be excited, and when you can build something like that in the middle of a city it's that much more exciting."
It was also a good event financially. All 14 men and seven women invited to the event were guaranteed $10,000 to show up, while the winner took an additional $30,000, second an additional $20,000 and third an additional $10,000.
Janyk says four of his friends from home even made the trip to Moscow to watch and were in the front row when he placed third.
"They put on a really good party with live music and performances, big screens everywhere. It was just a really good event to be part of, whether you were an athlete or a spectator," he said.
On the women's side Therese Borssen of Sweden upset Maria Riesch of Germany to take the win, while Frida Hansdotter of Sweden beat Sandrine Aubert of France in the small final to place third.
The athletes are back in action this weekend in Aspen, Colorado.
Whistler skiers top Panorama GS
Whistler skiers were on the top of their game in the annual FIS giant slalom races at Panorama on Saturday, with members of the national, provincial and club teams on hand to warm up for the season.
Robbie Dixon led the pack with a two-run time of 1:56.40, almost a second ahead of Ontario's Tyler Nella. Quebec's Jean-Philippe Roy placed third, followed by national team skiers Brad Spence and Francois Bourque. Sasha Zaitsoff of the B.C. Ski Team was the only skier in the top-10 who is not a member of the national team, placing ninth overall in 1:58.73. Manuel Osborne-Paradis, an alumnus of the Whistler Mountain Ski Club, placed 10 th .
Other WMSC racers representing the B.C. Ski Team were Morgan Pridy in 18 th place and Ford Swette 30 th . WMSC skiers in the running included Benjamin MacLean in 32 nd place, William Konantz 36 th , Michael Cadman 37 th and Spencer Morris 39 th .
A race scheduled for Friday at Nakiska was cancelled because of the heavy snowfall.
