Kitzbühel (Austria) (AFP)

Absent from Kitzbühel for nearly 60 years, the skiers are deprived of the challenge and the exposure of the most important race in the world, between choices made and debates on the dangerousness of the track.

"I would have liked to have had the chance to ski here at least once, I am jealous of the men. The track is so amazing, like the atmosphere that surrounds it with the fans."

These words were spoken in 2020 by what is considered the greatest skier in history, American Lindsey Vonn, who had asked, in vain, during her career to be able to compete with men.

Kitzbühel where two descents are organized on Friday and Saturday, and a super-G on Sunday, is one of the many stages of the Single-sex Alpine Skiing World Cup (men and women have the same number of races), just like the other big annual meeting in Wengen, canceled this season.

The women's circuit also has its classics, like Cortina (Italy), but they do not weigh heavily in the face of the excessiveness of the "Hahnenkamm" (Rooster crest, nickname of the mountain and of the competition weekend), its more than 500 journalists, 90,000 spectators and 47 million euros in total turnover claimed in normal times ...

As much potential fame, of which the women have been deprived since 1961, date of their last high-level race in the Austrian resort.

The descent route then took the terrible Streif but started lower and avoided the steepest parts.

- "Too dangerous" -

Two new tests were planned in 1990 and 1998, canceled due to the weather.

From a logistical point of view, the organizers consider it impossible to add women's races to the already dense men's program.

They confirm that no discussions are engaged with the International Ski Federation, even to create a second weekend of competition, reserved for women.

In addition, a sensitive question in the rather conservative world of alpine skiing, are women, the best in the world in their field, capable of competing in a descent on the Streif, the most demanding and dangerous slope in the world?

"I do not understand why we are discussing this", surprised the Swiss Michelle Gisin, current second in the general classification of the World Cup.

"There are men, women, different physique, that's clear. + Skiing + Kitzbühel downhill, it's too dangerous, and if you go a little slower (than the men) you are back and that 'is even more dangerous ", adds the one who saw her brother Marc seriously injured in the Austrian station in 2015.

- "We can do it" -

"Personally I would love to compete here," Czech Olympic super-G champion Ester Ledecka told AFP. It would be extremely difficult, but I'm sure we can do it. "

One element of the debate comes from the preparation of the track, as icy and hard as possible, which makes it dangerous.

"Even though I am the Olympic downhill champion, there are tracks that are made for men, according to AFP the Italian Sofia Goggia, yet reputed to be hothead. This downhill is so pressurized that women would not resist it, especially in the first part, and that comes from the preparation of the snow. On normal snow, we could surely do it, but there would be a big gap between the first and the bottom of the classification. "

The two-time Slovenian world champion Ilka Stuhec, who also underlines the problem of preparation, thinks that the officials also lack a bit of willpower to showcase both sexes equally.

“At the Sochi Olympics in 2014, the last slope before the finish was very, very fast, we were reaching at least 140 km / h. But because it would have seemed too extreme and dangerous, the radar had not been placed there but on the flat, where we went at 100 km / h. I think we did not want to show that the girls can ski so fast. Yet we are equal ... "

"Maybe one day the girls will ski in Kitzbühel, but I would be surprised if I was here to see it!", Believes Stuhec.

© 2021 AFP