In the end it was the Norwegians who powered their way to victory in the Team Parallel Event at the World Cup Finals. The Norwegians beat the Swiss in the Final having beaten the Austrians in the semi final. The Austrians would go on to take third after beating the Germans in the small final.
The team event is a fascinating event but also a confusing event. The immediate nature of the result being known is great and fun to watch yet it is continually shunned by the top stars. Only the Italian team had real A list racers, Marta Bassino and Federica Brignone but they were beaten in the opening heat by German 3-1. The Germans had pulled in a downhiller, Andy Sander to fill out their team.
While all the racers, except those taking part for Andorra (the host nation) had qualified for the World Cup Finals, the fact that the Europa Cup Finals were taking part at the same time, this will have pulled a number of racers away from the event. Indeed, the Americans and Canadians did not even enter a team, leaving just six teams to race.
This leaves the event in a little bit of a quandary for FIS. Do they redesign it, reposition it or place the focus on the manufacturers instead?
If they redesign it by changing its time to the end of the Finals, this may encourage more A list racers to take part. Just imagine the US team being able to call on Mikaela Shiffrin and Paula Moltzan (remember how well she did at the Lech / Zurs event in 2021!) to race with say Ben Ritchie and Tommy Ford. The French could call upon Alexis Pinturault and Clement Noel with Nastasia Noens and Tessa Worley. This would certainly appeal to the fans but with the Men racing GS the following day and the Women Slalom, the tech skiers were not so keen to race in case of injury and preserving energy.
To reposition the race in terms of given the racers the prize money directly this could help as well. Currently the prize money goes to the National Ski Associations and it is up to them to decide where the money goes.
Maybe make the event a night event at the beginning of the Finals, maybe after one of the training runs for the Downhill. Again this would be dependent on the racers being in resort. Place it at the end of the Finals and most racers have gone home.
You could bring World Cup points into the equation as well. We all know how hungry racers are for points, especially f they are fighting for the Globes. If you said, you could add the points to any discipline of the racers choice, or you based the points awarded on the best time rankings, this would give the more successful nations more chances to get better times as a 'reward.'
Alternatively why not turn the event over to the manufacturers to bring the A list racers to the event. Can you imagine the bragging rights of Head racing against Atomic and Rossignol and all the brands using their big names. If participation in this event was written into the contracts, this could be really exciting.
And to make it even more exciting, why not add small jumps into the courses? These have been used at Alta Badia for the Parallel GS races in the past and would bring another variable to the table.
The event is fun and a great way to give many of the racers a day off between the speed and tech races, vital especially when there are Globes at stake. This year all bar two globes have been decided before the Finals rolled into town. The Women's Super G and the Men's Slalom were the only two events still to be decided.
The racing was good, was clean, was fun and pretty even, maybe the blue course was fractionally faster but with both teams racing twice down each course, the trick was in tactics used by the team manager to make sure you had your faster racer on the course.
With just one British racer at the Finals, Dave Ryding, there was no GB Team. The Europa Cup Finals in Narvik, Norway, could not be further away if a team was to have entered!
For the record, the Norwegians had a strong list of racers, all top seed racers.
The team event is a great event, it just needs tweaking a little.
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