WHISTLER, British Columbia — There has been a lot of joy here at Vail House, thanks to Lindsey Vonn’s two medals and six others by U.S. alpine racers.
But the folks from Vail are hoping for another reason to celebrate in June, when they find out if Vail/Beaver Creek will host the world alpine ski championships in 2015. Racers consider the world championships, held in odd-numbered years, nearly as important as the Olympics.
Vail/Beaver Creek hosted world championships in 1989 and 1999. Only one other American resort — Aspen in 1950 — has hosted the event.
“I think we’ll have an excellent bid,” said Ceil Folz, president of the Vail Valley Foundation and co-chairman of the bid committee. “We have demonstrated great hills, great organization.”
The other resorts vying for 2015 are St. Moritz, Switzerland; and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
Some would say it should be North America’s turn. Since “Vail ’99,” the event has been held in Austria, Switzerland, Italy and France. In 2011 it goes to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. In 2013, Schladming, Austria.
“Everybody has a way they can explain ‘our turn,’ ” Folz said. “Cortina might say, ‘It’s our turn because we never had a world championships.’ We would say, in the larger sense of the sport moving in a sphere outside central Europe, it’s our turn.”
The world championships come as part of a package deal, because resorts that win them are expected to host the World Cup finals the previous year. That would mean all the top alpine racers in every discipline, men and women, would compete in Vail/Beaver Creek in March 2014 with season titles on the line. Vail previously hosted World Cup finals in 1994 and 1997.
Vonn, the Olympic downhill champion, will be 30 years old in 2015. She could be at the apex of her career.
Vail/Beaver Creek would build a new women’s downhill at Beaver Creek, adjacent to the existing men’s course, if the bid is successful. Might that be christened Lindsey’s Run, or the Vonn Bahn?
“It’s a little premature to be discussing that,” said John Garnsey, co-president of Vail Resorts. “It would be very tempting.”
John Meyer: 303-954-1616 or jmeyer@denverpost.com
