When it was announced that the Alpine World Ski Championships were to be held in Val Gardena/Gröden in 1970, the people of the valley went to work. It needed infrastructures, including roads and multipurpose buildings, but above all race tracks, which did not yet exist. Everything that was built at that time benefited and still benefits the population, and a lot of it is still used today. Likewise, modernization and innovative impulses from the World Championships, including the new buildings at that time, were used by the population as an opportunity for the development of the valley and its culture. It is precisely on this principle that we would like to continue the candidacy and the possible hosting of the World Championships for future generations.

The construction of the Saslong. 

The current Saslong downhill course was completed in 1970 for the World Championships. While the women's downhill at the 1970 World Championships was held on the "CIR" track, which already partly existed, the men's downhill course had to be built first. A dress rehearsal took place in 1969 before the world champions were crowned on the new speed course. Today, the Saslong is a fast, very spectacular downhill course incorporating almost twenty smaller and larger jumps. The famous camel humps are still one of the critical sections for experts in the Alpine Ski World Cup. The record winning time on the Saslong is 1:52.99 minutes, set in 2003 by two-time Val Gardena/Gröden triumphant Antoine Deneriaz from France.

For over fifty years, the Saslong has been the venue for the world's best skiers every December. The World Cup races (one downhill, one super-G) have become classics in the Alpine ski circuit over the past decades, and today it is impossible to imagine the World Cup calendar without them.