Only one month remains until the first competition of the new 2020-2021 World Cup season. However, there have been a few changes in the calendar in recent days. The inaugurational weekend in Lillehammer is also uncertain.
One of the changes is about the planned World Cup event in Zao. The organizing committee decided, that the competitions scheduled on January 15-17, 2021 are cancelled.
“The organizing committee in Zao and the Japanese Ski Association were looking for possibilities to carry out the competitions during these difficult times. We regret that we had to come to the conclusion that the event has to be canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We are very sorry that we had to make this decision, but we had no other choice”, the Japanese Ski Association revealed in an official statement to FIS.
Currently, FIS is looking for a replacement for Zao. One of the options is an additional third competition in Sapporo (January 9-10, 2021). There is also a rumour about additional competitions in Norway.
Another change is the movement of the World Cup event in Hinterzarten (January 30-31, 2021) to Titisee-Neustadt. The reason of this decision is the protracted modernization process of Adlerschanze.
Thanks to this change, the Hochfirstschanze (HS142) in Titisee-Neustadt becomes the biggest hill of the World Cup 2020-2021 calendar. Hinterzarten will most likely return to the World Cup in the 2021-2022 season.
Apart from these calendar changes, the fate of the inauguration of the World Cup in Lillehammer (December 5-6) is unknown. The organizing committee is still waiting for the government guarantees necessary to host this event. The decision is to be made next week.
The FIS authorities took into account the situation of the OC in Lillehammer. The final decision of the Event Task Force has been postponed to Tuesday, November 10.