World Cup’s first ever Parallel Slalom on a ramp

For the first time ever in the history of the World Cup, Moscow hosts a parallel slalom on a massive ramp built right in the middle of the city in order to provide an unforgettable in-city spectacle on March 6th.

The venue is located on the territory of the Moscow City Palace for Children’s and Youth’s Creativity, not far from the State University. On a gigantic steel construction a scenario becomes reality for the race boarders, which is a daily routine already for the big air participants: a ramp contest held downtown including night finals under flood light and a huge crowd to cheer for the athletes.

It took the local organisers about two months to build the world’s biggest ramp in the Russian capital – but the effort invested did pay off: the 60 metres high and 35 metres wide structure provides a slope length of 200 metres. This one of a kind consists of 156,000 single steel elements summing up to a total weight of 1,300 tons plus 4,000 m³ of snow.

Reasons enough for many top riders to experience another highlight of the World Cup calendar. Although reigning Olympic Champion Jasey Jay Anderson (CAN) will be missing the night finals, the second and third ranked athletes of the Olympic parallel giant slalom at Cypress Mountain, Benjamin Karl (AUT) and Mathieu Bozzetto (FRA), will lead a strong field of men.

On the ladies’ side, all three Winter Games medallists will compete in Moscow. Besides title holder Nicolien Sauerbreij (NED) and Bronze medallist Marion Kreiner from Austria also Ekaterina Ilyukhina will start. The 22-years-old Russian, who finished as a surprising runnerup at Vancouver, is looking forward to enjoy the home turf contest in Europe’s biggest city.

All five race boarders will be accompanied by some 40 ladies and 50 men coming from 17 countries in order to battle for World Cup points in the season’s second parallel slalom, the eighth parallel race out of ten this winter.

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