Innichen/ San Candido ready for pre-Xmas ski cross show

Buongiorno from beautiful Italy, where we are back with a double-pack of ski cross action to wrap up the pre-Christmas SX show. After a one-year hiatus due to the pandemic, the organisers of the Audi FIS Ski Cross World Cup 3 Zinnen Dolomites in Innichen are welcoming the ski cross circuit back in their beautiful resort underneath the Haunold.

Some people do say that in the South Tyrol area, the sun shines 360 days a year. Well, we don’t know about that exactly, but what we do know is that the weather is looking good for our entire stay including both race days on Sunday and Monday and the sun is indeed forecasted for the ski cross show. Mille grazie, Mother nature!

Smith VS. Naeslund battle continues

So far this season, we pretty much saw the continuation of the everlasting battle between World Champion and World Cup leader Sandra Naeslund (SWE) and winningest athlete in ski cross Fanny Smith (SUI).

In a nutshell, Naeslund won three times so far this season and has a total of 350 points in the World Cup standings. Runner-up Smith has three second places so far and is still missing a win this season, which she almost got on home soil at the night-event in Arosa. However, a literal ninja move in the air after a collision in the air with Naeslund, caused her to lose some speed in the end and the beneficiary of this head-to-head fight in the end was Canada’s Marielle Thompson with her first win back after an injury-break from racing.

In Innichen the standings between Smith and Naeslund are 4:2. The Swiss athlete actually had her very first World Cup win here in December 2010. She took another victory in 2013, 2018 and also at the last competition held here in 2019. Naeeslund won in 2017 and 2018.

But, we also saw a very strong Brittany Phelan back in racing action, as well as already mentioned, Marielle Thompson is back on our watchlist for podiums and don’t forget Zoe Chore with her maiden podium (third place) in Arosa. Canadian team coming strong at us…

Joos Berry double winner in Innichen

If we take a close look at Innichen statistics on the men’s side, we can see that Joos Berry (SUI) seems to like that track here. His only two World Cup victories in his career, happened underneath the Haunold. Maiden World Cup win happened in 2018 and he repeated the show in 2019. Will we see him again on top of the podium this time around?

His competition surely is pretty strong. Only looking at the World Cup leader Terence Tchiknavorian from France, who was able to make his first career win in Val Thorens on home soil and then top that off with another podium spot (second place) the following day. And then he also grabbed second spot again in Arosa two days later. The Frenchman just seems to be on fire these days!

His teammate Bastien Midol is just behind in the World Cup standings with also some very strong racing with two podium spots so far this season, one third place in Secret Garden (CHN) and a second place in Val Thorens (FRA).

But now, attenzione prego! We have a brand-new superstar on our watchlist and he comes from Italy! Simone Deromedis also grabbed his maiden podium, a third spot, in Val Thorens and ever since, the 21-year-old showed some really solid racing and therefore is sitting in third place at the overall World Cup standings.

We are excited to see, how Deromedis will perform on home soil, but in general we know by now that we can never rule out any athlete for the podium battle, because this is ski cross and in ski cross, anything is possible!