Two weeks before the World Cup opener in Sölden, Germany's leading women are pushing back against plans to squeeze even more into the alpine calendar. Emma Aicher and Kira Weidle-Winkelmann have rejected the idea of annual World Championships put forward by new FIS president Alexander Ospelt. "The calendar is actually full. From Sölden to the finals there's something on every weekend," Weidle-Winkelmann said.
Ospelt's plan: Worlds in every non-Olympic year
Ospelt, from Luxembourg, has proposed staging alpine World Championships in every year without a Winter Olympics, rather than only in odd-numbered years as is currently the case. The FIS Council has publicly backed the idea, with a start in 2032 – or possibly as early as 2028 – under discussion. Ospelt argues that a world title carries significant financial value for athletes, that smaller nations would gain extra opportunities to host, and that the championships could help open up new markets such as China, Japan and South Korea.
The schedule is already crowded. The 2026/27 World Cup calendar contains seven more races than the 2025/26 Olympic season. It opens with the giant slaloms in Sölden on 24 and 25 October and concludes with the finals in Sun Valley from 18 to 25 March 2027.
Aicher: "When you're tired, it can always be dangerous"
An all-rounder like Aicher, who contends for top results across every discipline, would be hit hardest. "I really like racing, but I wouldn't know where they'd want to fit in even more races," the 22-year-old said. "From mid-November to the end of March it's basically full. There's something every weekend, sometimes even midweek."
Aicher stressed that athletes themselves have to manage their energy, but warned of the risks of overload: "When you're tired, it can always be dangerous." The fact that stars such as Mikaela Shiffrin and Marco Schwarz have already announced they will skip races this winter shows how strongly the packed calendar is shaping the plans of the sport's biggest names.
Alpine SkiingSofia Goggia to miss Sölden opener after summer battle with chikungunyaWeidle-Winkelmann wants more speed, not more races
Weidle-Winkelmann, who won silver in the team combined at the Milano Cortina Olympics, is less concerned with the number of races than with how they are distributed. The 30-year-old criticised an imbalance between disciplines, arguing there are too few downhills and super-Gs and too many technical events. Speed races are also regularly lost to cancellations – a problem she believes an extra championship would do nothing to solve.
The pair have the backing of German head coach Andreas Puelacher. For versatile athletes like Aicher, who can finish in the top five in several disciplines, planning a season around annual Worlds would be "very difficult", the 62-year-old said. His verdict was clear: "In my view, you should raise the quality of the races, not the number of races."
Nothing has been decided yet. Before FIS firms up its plans, Aicher and Weidle-Winkelmann face a full programme of their own, starting with the women's giant slalom in Sölden on 24 October.
