For the third time, Cortina d’Ampezzo’s bid to host the Alpine World Ski Championships has fallen short. First came the 2013 bid won by the Austrian resort of Schladming, then the 2015 bid awarded to the US resort of Vail, and today the chance to host the 2019 Alpine World Ski Championships also fades away.
Taking home the victory is the Swedish resort of ARE, located just a few kilometers from the Arctic Circle; the head-to-head contest once again left the Pearl of the Dolomites empty-handed.
All of Cortina, and more broadly all of Italy, had been counting on a victory for the Ampezzo ski area, which has been working for years to bring the World Ski Championships back to Italian snow.
An impressive track record studded with 9 Men’s Alpine Ski World Cup races, 77 Women’s Alpine Ski World Cup races, 5 editions of the Tour de Ski, and 6 Snowboard Cross European Cup events—marred, however, by political turmoil, tax raids by the Guardia di Finanza, lack of snow, or (as in this past winter) an overabundance of snow, so much snow that it caused the famous mid-season blackout.
What remains is a bitter taste and the wish—”sportingly” echoed by the delegate from the winning resort of ARE—to see the Alpine World Ski Championships in Italy.
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