Oberhof to host World Cup again after 11 year pause

After an 11 year pause the XCSki World Cup is returning to Oberhof, Germany 

Andreas Schlütter, sporting director of the German cross-country skiing federation, broke the news interview with the Thüringer Allgemeine paper this week.

 

The provisional dates are January 19th to 21st, 2024 which implies two races rather than three, but the schedule is to be confirmed and published by the FIS layer on. 

It was, frankly, weird NOT to have Oberhof to host the World Cup events ( the last one was in 2013).  The town is а gem – more or less  purpose-built to be a major winter sport center, with biathlon and luge being two major ones, but xcskiing not too far behind.

Several top German skiers call Oberhof tracks  home – from the Olympic champion Victoria Carl ( technically, Victoria is from the town of Zella- Mehlis just down the road) to the leader of the new generation , Lisa Lohmann,  who just won a silver medal at the JWSC’ U23 in Whistler.

But it’s not just locals – most international skiers know Oberhof through & through  – but in the summer, when everyone comes there to train in the world’s largest ski tunnel.

Oberhof just hosted world’s luge championships and about to host world’s biathlon one. For that and for the future development the town got some 80+ million  euros upgrade from the German authorities, federal and Thuringian.  We doubt luge tracks improvements would make any difference for xcsking. But whatever renovations at and around Arena am Grenzadler where biathletes compete every year would surely be of use for the xcskiers and their fans. 

This sport of ours really needs a big modern place to compete in the middle of Europe – Oberhof seems to fit that bill perfectly.