Top northern hemisphere alpine ski teams are due to arrive in Queenstown to prepare for the Alpine Ski World Cup, being held at the end of October in Solden, Austria.
First to arrive will be Austria’s Marcel Hirscher, 35, a slalom specialist who’s won a record eight consecutive world cup titles.
After retiring five years ago, he shocked the ski racing world in April when he announced he’d be making a comeback.
He’ll be followed by the Switzerland Europa Cup team and the Austrian World Cup team, along with the men’s and women’s USA teams.
Additionally, Global Racing, an international elite-level ski team, comprising world cup athletes from Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria and Denmark, are also on the way, as is Red Bull athlete Lucas Braathen, a Brazilian and Norwegian world cup alpine ski racer.
The 24-year-old won the 2023 Slalom World Cup for Norway last year, promptly retired from ski racing, but then announced his return to the sport — this time representing Brazil.
He’s currently training at Roundhill, near Tekapo.
Snow Sports NZ board member and Coberger Academy founder Nils Coberger says for the next two months it’ll be hammer and tongs at Coronet, particularly at Rocky Gully, where the teams will be training.
Coberger says most of the internationals will be competing in the Australia New Zealand Cup series, part of this year’s Winter Games, which run from August 27 till September 2.
