Saslong is a World Cup downhill ski course in Italy just above Val Gardena/Gröden. Located on the

Langkofel The Saslonch, Sassolungo or Langkofel ( lld, Saslonch; it, Sassolungo ; german: Langkofel ) (3,181m) is the highest mountain of the Langkofel Group in the Dolomites in South Tyrol, Italy. The name translates to "long peak" / "long rock" in all ...

in the Dolomites, the race course made its World Cup debut in February

1969 This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon. Events January * January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco. * January 5 **Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...

Course sections

Spinel

Difficult jump short after the start, into the steepest section (56.9% gradient), then virtual change direction in mid-air to compression.

Saut dl Moro

A jump which takes skiers into the second compression.

Looping

Muri di Sochers

jump in the air, followed by a flat, yet intense, left-right-left gate combination ending at the 1st Mauer ("Wall"). Skiers jump approximately directly to the 1st Mauer and have to sway to the right to the 2nd Mauer. The jump on the 2nd Mauer contemporaneously serves as the entry into the flat section leading to the 1st Camel Hump with top speed at .

Gobbe del Cammello (Camel Humps)

The

Camel A camel (from: la, camelus and grc-gre, κάμηλος (''kamēlos'') from Hebrew or Phoenician: גָמָל ''gāmāl''.) is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. C ...

Humps represent the most spectacular section of the Saslong. They were named by the late and former Austrian FIS TD Sepp Sulzberger. Uli Spiess from Austria was the first athlete to attempt and succeed in jumping all three Humps at the same time instead of taking each jump separately. Since Spiess' premiere, skiers today mostly absorb the first jump (a.k.a. "Girardelli Line") and leap from the second over the third. The record jump belongs to Austrian skier Michael Walchhofer who leaped reaching a height of 4-5 meters in 2003.

Ciaslat

Ciaslat with its corrugated ripples and bumps is where the race is often decided. In this technically very demanding section of the course racers face overall 17 different ripples.

Nucia (Tunnel)

Skiers take the Nucia jump into the final schuss following the exit from Ciaslat.

Schuss

The jump owes its name to the new tunnel that runs below the Final schuss and is part of the new street by-passing St.Christina which was opened in 2009.

World Cup

Fis Ski World Cup Val Gardena Ciampinoi start

Pista nera Saslong, libera maschile (3166787038)

Arrivo pista nera Saslong, libera maschile (3166789370)

Fis Ski World Cup Val Gardena Ciampinoi arrival

The first downhill winner in February

was

Jean-Daniel Dätwyler Jean-Daniel Dätwyler (born 2 April 1945) is a Swiss former alpine skier and Olympic medalist. He received a bronze medal in the downhill at the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble.World Championships in

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

, which also counted for 1970 World Cup season points and wins/podiums statistics. On 23 March

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

, Saslong hosted the first parallel slalom in history, Gustav Thöni won in front of 40,000, beating Ingemar Stenmark in the final.

Men

Women

Club5+

In 1986, elite Club5 was originally founded by prestigius classic downhill organizers:

Kitzbühel Kitzbühel (, also: ; ) is a medieval town situated in the Kitzbühel Alps along the river Kitzbüheler Ache in Tyrol, Austria, about east of the state capital Innsbruck and is the administrative centre of the Kitzbühel district (). Kitzbühel ...

, Wengen, Garmisch, Val d’Isère and Val Gardena/Gröden, with goal to bring alpine ski sport on the highest levels possible. Later over the years other classic longterm organizers joined the now named Club5+:

Alta Badia Alta Badia is a ski resort in the Dolomites of northern Italy, in the upper part of the Val Badia (german: Hochabtei) in South Tyrol. It is part of the Dolomiti Superski ski area. It is included in the territories of the municipalities of Corvar ...

Cortina Cortina may refer to: Things * Cortina (tango), a short piece of music played during a tango dance event * Ford Cortina, a medium-sized family car built by Ford of Britain from 1962 to 1982 **Lotus Cortina, a 1963–1968 performance variant on the ...

, Kranjska Gora,

Maribor Maribor ( , , , ; also known by other #Name, historical names) is the second-largest city in Slovenia and the largest city of the traditional region of Styria (Slovenia), Lower Styria. It is also the seat of the City Municipality of Maribor, th ...

, Lake Louise, Schladming, Adelboden, Kvitfjell,

St.Moritz St. Moritz (also german: Sankt Moritz, rm, , it, San Maurizio, french: Saint-Moritz) is a high Alpine resort town in the Engadine in Switzerland, at an elevation of about above sea level. It is Upper Engadine's major town and a municipality i ...

and Åre.

References

External links

*
FIS Alpine Ski World Cup
– Val Gardena, Italy
Ski-db.com
- Val Gardena men's races {{Ski World Cup pistes Skiing in Italy