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Andorra Bids For Alpine World Championships

With just over a year to go before the successful hosts are named, Andorra has announced that it wants to stage the World Championships in 2027.

Unusually, the bid is on behalf of the whole Principality, rather than individual ski resorts or towns.

It is the first time Andorra has made a bid to stage the event which attracts hundreds of skiers from around 70 countries.

It does, though,  have a recent history of organising both Europa Cup and World Cup races.

In 2019 Grandvalira held the World Cup Finals.

The UK Specialist, Absolutely Snow, offers ski holidays to Andorra.

“The bid for the 2027 World Championships by Andorra is pretty unique – rather than using just 1 ski area for the competition Andorra are proposing using the whole country,” said Duncan Gilroy from Absolutely Snow.

“This will highlight the great skiing to be found not only in the Grandvalira but in Vallnord and also Arcalis, which we liken to the Grand Montets of the Pyrenees!

“With the medals ceremonies taking place in the capital of Andorra – Andorra la Vella we hope our clients will understand how close the capital is to the ski areas and how easy it is to access each of the 3 ski areas from Andorra la Vella.”

Grau Roig, Andorra

Grau Roig, Andorra. Image © PlanetSKI

The Pyrenees country will be up against some big ski names for the 2027 Championships.

Crans-Montana in Switzerland and Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany have thrown their hats in the ring.

The successful hosts will be decided at the International Ski Federation (FIS) Congress in May 2022 in Portugal.

The World Championships are held every two years.

The most recent, in Cortina d’Ampezzo in Italy in February this year, took place amid Covid-19 restrictions and with none of the usual large crowds of spectators.

FIS has just revealed that a final debrief following those Championships  reported ‘an extremely low number of positive cases’ of Covid-19,  despite the size and scope of the event.

The next two World Championships will be in Courchevel-Méribel in France in 2021 and Saalbach in Austria in 2025.