CAPE TOWN, South Africa — The Austrian resort of Schladming won an election Thursday to host the 2013 World Ski Championships, beating out Vail/Beaver Creek.
Schladming, which hosted the event in 1982, was chosen by FIS, the sport’s governing body, at its annual congress.
The Austrian bid received 10 of the 16 votes. Vail/Beaver Creek got four, and Cortina d’Ampezzo in Italy and St. Moritz, Switzerland, received one vote each.
Schladming will be the seventh consecutive world championships venue in Europe since Vail/Beaver Creek last hosted in 1999.
“They will have been in Europe for the last six championships and it is important to move them to other parts of the world,” said Ceil Folz, president of the Vail Valley Foundation bid team.
As so often on the ski circuit, the U.S. faced its biggest challenge from Austria.
Schladming was a pre-vote favorite.
“We have some good levels of support and we’re hopeful,” Folz said before the vote.
A victory for Vail and Beaver Creek would have led to a signature women’s downhill course created as part of a billion-dollar upgrade in the Vail Valley. It would have been a companion to the men’s Birds of Prey run created for the 1999 championships, Folz said.
“There really isn’t a women’s downhill (course) in the U.S. and what we’re proposing would be that,” Folz said. “It would give the women more opportunities to show their stuff other than in Europe.”
The fate of the Vail’s women’s downhill course is unknown in the wake of the resort’s no-vote.
Folz hoped to attract voters by setting out a proposed program to attract children to ski racing.
“It is really about using the championships as a catalyst to grow the sport,” she said.
