There is something to be said that when none of your A Class racers want to race in the team event for the country and you put in a team made up majority of Juniors, and then they go on to win the event. Many commentators raised their eyebrows on seeing the team Switzerland selected for the Team event but the last laugh was on them as the Swiss team came through to win the Final against Austria with Germany beating the Norwegians for third.
Only eight teams entered the team event, further questioning the importance some nations place on the event. No American team despite the number of racers that they have in Meribel / Courchevel; no Sweden for Slovakia. With America deciding not to race Slovenia stepped up and had to pull in a Downhiller, Martin Cater, to make up the team.
Some nations wanted to make a big go of this, notably Italy but they crashed out in the first round despite boasting a team including Federica Brignone, Marta Bassino, Giovani Borsotti and Luca di Aliprandini. The youthful German team beat them 3-1.
France, another team that could have entered a strong team also left at the first round, beaten by Norway after drawing 2-2 and having to rely on times. Austria beat the Slovenians in the same fashion.
The last first round race was the Canadians against the young Swiss and the Canadians were beaten 4-0. The Canadians had won the World Juniors in the team event but their World Cup racers did not have an answer for the next generation of Swiss racers.
Austria and Switzerland beat Norway and Germany in the semi final, both 3-1.
This left the two alpine nations fighting it out for the top spot. With Nations Cup points at stake and prize money for the Governing Body rather than the athlete, this may have been a reason for the lack of interest from main line racers (plus the fact that the Men's Giant slalom and Women's Slalom take place in the morning).
With three of the Swiss racers never having raced on the World Cup and all four of the Austrian's regular racers on the World Cup, many were predicting an Austrian win. Only Ricarda Haaser scored a point for the Austrians as the Swiss went on to win 3-1.
Make a note to remember the names Delphine Darbellay, Andrea Ellenberger (the only one to have raced on the World Cup before), Fadri Janutin and Livio Simonet. The young Swiss gave their opponents a lesson.
So while the individual parallel event takes time due to the two run format, the team event is much slicker affair. Four racers, two men and two women; the teams are balanced out in that 1 man and 1 woman race on the red and the same on the blue.
So how doing you attract the big names to the event? Apart from the Italian star studded team, there were few genuine World Cup stars on show. Austria's Stefan Brennsteiner, Slovenia's Zan Kranjec and Germany's Lena Dürr were three of the biggest stars on show.
Imagine the appeal if the likes of Odermatt, Pinturault, Kilde, Shiffrin and Vlhova were all racing? Would the event be better off as a competition between the ski brands rather than filling the pockets of the Governing bodies? The format is good but it just does not attract the top racers.
With Laurie Taylor and Charlie Guest at the Europa Cup Finals, it would have been an extremely young British team that would have taken part had a team been entered.
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