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Oberstdorf (dpa) - The organizers of the Nordic World Ski Championships in Oberstdorf have finally given up their plans for partial admission of viewers in the midst of the Corona crisis.
The title fights for ski jumpers, cross-country skiers and combined athletes from February 23 to March 7 will be held without an audience, as the organizers announced on Tuesday.
So far, the World Cup has been planned with an admission of 2,500 fans in the ski jumping arena and 2,000 spectators in the cross-country stadium.
"Of course we would all have wished for a different decision," Franz Steinle, President of the German Ski Association (DSV) was quoted in the message of the organizers.
The Four Hills Tournament of the ski jumpers around the turn of the year was already over the stage without an audience.
For those involved in Oberstdorf, the ghost competitions are particularly bitter because the small town has been looking forward to the title fights for years and is hosting a Nordic World Ski Championships in Germany for the first time since 2005.
The money for the tickets already purchased will be refunded in full, it said.
The organizers are now planning to decorate the stadiums with cardboard cutouts and photos of fans.
During the tour, instead of the usual backdrop of 20,000 fans, a few hundred cardboard comrades were set up, on which the former winter sports aces Peter Schlickenrieder and Felix Neureuther were also shown.
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"The 2021 World Championships will not be the winter fairy tale we have all dreamed of, but certainly not a bloodless ghost World Cup," said Steinle and relied on TV images.
"If our fans cannot come to Oberstdorf, we will deliver the great World Cup pictures and emotions straight to their home."
Information about the 2021 World Ski Championships in Oberstdorf
World Cup program
Corona information about the World Cup