FIS Cancelled Ski Racing Events Due to Warm Weather

Image: Ekaterina Grivet, Adobe Stock

International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) cancelled two Women’s Audi FIS World Cup races in Zermatt-Cervinia due to “unseasonably warm temperatures and heavy rain fall.” The races were scheduled for November 5 and 6, 2022, but the conditions on the course were deemed unsafe for athletes.

‘If the temperatures were 2 to 3 degrees colder in the last seven days, we would have had heavy snowfall all the way to the finish area and we could have produced technical snow. Nature must be respected and accepted. The FIS was left with no choice but to cancel the women’s races’, said OC President Franz Julen.

This announcement comes at a time that global warming is top of mind due to extreme weather events throughout the world. According to the International Energy Agency, Switzerland’s average temperature has risen two to three times faster than the global average, with its average temperature increasing 2°C between 1864 and 2016.