Saslong
Ski course in Italy
Saslong is a World Cup downhill ski course in northern Italy, just above Val Gardena/Gröden in the South Tyrol. Located on the Langkofel in the Dolomites, the race course made its World Cup debut in February 1969. The ski course is named after the mountain Saslonch (German: Langkofel, Italian: Sassolungo) with an adapted spelling.
Franz Klammer and Kristian Ghedina won record 4 downhills and Aksel Lund Svindal record 5 super-G's.
01Course sections
Spinel
This section starts as a very 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 forty-metre (130 ft) jump which takes skiers into the second compression.
Looping
Muri di Sochers
This section starts as a Fifteen-to-twenty-metre (49 to 66 ft) jump in the air, followed by a flat, yet intense, left-right-left gate combination ending at the 1st Mauer ("Wall").
Skiers jump ca. 35 metres (115 ft) 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 first Camel Hump with top speed at about 130 km/h (81 mph).
Gobbe del Cammello (Camel Humps)
The Camel 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 88 metres (289 ft) reaching a height of 4-5 meters in 2003.
Ciaslat
This section, with its corrugated ripples and bumps, is often where the race is decided. Racers encounter 17 ripples in this technically demanding part of the course.
Nucia (Tunnel)
Skiers take the Nucia jump into the final schuss following the exit from Ciaslat.
Schuss
The last and finals section of the course starts with jump that 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.
02World Cup
The first downhill winner in 1969 was Jean-Daniel Dätwyler (SUI), and this annual ski event is part of the prestigious Saslong Classic competition. Saslong hosted the World Championships in 1970, which also counted for 1970 World Cup season points and wins/podiums statistics.
On 23 March 1975, Saslong hosted the first parallel slalom in history, Gustav Thöni won in front of 40,000, beating Ingemar Stenmark in the final.
| Downhill start | Upper section 1 | Upper section 2 | Intermediate section |
|---|---|---|---|
| Werner Heel (2013) | Bode Miller (2006) | Final section | Finish area |
Men
World Championships, also counted for World Cup.
Not part of classic Saslong competition. It only replaced Lake Louise (2001), Beaver Creek (2022, 2025), Zermatt-Cervinia (2023)
Women
| No. | Type | Season | Date | Winner | Second | Third |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1611 | DH | 2018/19 | 18 December 2018 | Ilka Štuhec | Tina Weirather Nicole Schmidhofer |
|
| 1612 | SG | 19 December 2018 | Ilka Štuhec | Nicol Delago | Ramona Siebenhofer |
03Club5+
In 1986, elite Club5 was originally founded by prestigious classic downhill organizers: 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, Cortina, Kranjska Gora, Maribor, Lake Louise, Schladming, Adelboden, Kvitfjell, St.Moritz and Åre.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Saslong”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Saslong downhill race track in Val Gardena.jpg by This Photo was taken by Wolfgang Moroder. Feel free to use my photos, but please mention me as the author and send me a message. This image is not in the public domain. Please respect the copyright protection. It may only be used according to the rules mentioned here. This specifically excludes use in social media, if applicable terms of the licenses listed here not appropriate. Please do not upload an updated image here without consultation with the Author. The author would like to make corrections only at his own source. This ensures that the changes are preserved. Please if you think that any changes should be required, please inform the author. Otherwise you can upload a new image with a new name. Please use one of the templates derivative or extract., CC BY-SA 3.0
- Fis Ski World Cup Val Gardena Ciampinoi start hut.jpg by Wolfgang Moroder, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Fis Ski World Cup Val Gardena Ciampinoi.jpg by Wolfgang Moroder, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Fis Ski World Cup Val Gardena Ciampinoi start.jpg by Wolfgang Moroder, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Pista nera Saslong, libera maschile (3166787038).jpg by Pietro Zanarini, CC BY 2.0
- Werner Heel Gröden 2013.JPG by Wolfgang Moroder, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Miller Bode 2008 001.jpg by Hans Bezard, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Arrivo pista nera Saslong, libera maschile (3166789370).jpg by Pietro Zanarini, CC BY 2.0
- Fis Ski World Cup Val Gardena Ciampinoi arrival.jpg by Wolfgang Moroder, CC BY-SA 3.0
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