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Manfred Pranger wins Schladming; timing scandal unfolding
By Nathaniel Vinton
January 25, 2005
Manfred Pranger of Austria has won the Schladming night slalom, one of the most important alpine World Cups of the season, but questions are being raised about the integrity of the race's timing system. The Italian ski federation has filed an appeal of the race results, and the FIS has confiscated material related to timing.
"They found out that the timing of the first run was not correct for two racers," said Peter Schroecksnadel, the president of the Austrian ski federation, which hosts the race.
The second run was delayed as the race jury reviewed video from the first run. This showed that times were stopping before athletes reached the finish line.
"We had to delay the second run because there were times on the first run to be checked," said Gunther Hujara, the race director of the FIS World Cup. "We found that two times had an incorrect impulse before the finish line...There is a backup system."
The jury went to the backup systems and found a new set of times, presented it to the concerned teams, Italy and Austria. Italy posted a protest, but the jury decided to accept the corrected times and run the race for the 42,000 fans and 30 racers who were waiting for the second run.
Now Italy is appealing the race. "Swatch timing was so good, and the Austrian federation got rid of Swiss timing," says the Italian team's manager, Adriano Iliffe. "They get these guys from Siemens in, and since then there's been problems. Flachau there was problems, and here were problems."
Phil McNichol, the head coach of the men's squad of the U.S. Ski Team, expressed shock and dismay that coaches were standing on the side of the course without any information as the second run was about to begin.
"The Austrian federation is sitting in with the jury going over the times, and I don't even know what's going on," said Phil McNichol, the head coach of the U.S. Ski Team. "I had people calling me, watching on television, asking what's going on, and I don't even know...No information to the coaches. Just run the race. This is nuts."
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