46th Golden Fox: the - very successful - story
05-02-10 14:11
The 46th Golden Fox event, attracting in the two days over 20.000 visitors, was a great success after Tina`s (self-) disappointment in the giant slalom race and the 9th place in the 1st slalom run but then with her 2nd place in the final run, staying only behind the winner Zettel.
The story of this Golden Fox success had an early start though! By a gondola- pillar, that gave up after 52 years of heavy duty and by the statement of the FIS President Marc Hodler at the yearly FIS Alpine Forum in Soelden: "The Golden Fox competitions in 2009 had the highest number of live TV viewers among all World Cup races, men and ladies!"
New gondola built in only 157 days!
The 45th Golden Fox had an extraordinary well media response, because of, besides the 15.000 on- spot visitors, over 200 million TV viewers, who saw the event, live or delayed! According to the analysis of the live TV viewers of the WC races in the season 2008/09, the 45th Golden Fox event was on the 1st rank among the 10 biggest alpine ski competitions. Even ahead of the famous men`s Kitzbuehl!
Which force could have, in face of this publicity victory, hold back the Fox organizers of the Ski Club Branik to put in their unbelievable energy to build a new gondola in only five months thus setting up a new world record in quick construction?!
It was Sunday, July 19, 2009 at 10.38 a.m. as the pillar No. 8 of the Pohorje gondola suddenly broke. By the accident three gondolas carrying fortunately only two passengers, crashed to the ground. The good fortune let them stay unhurt!
On Wednesday, December 23, 2009, only 157 days after the accident, the Mayor of Maribor, Mr. Franc Kangler, the Minister of the Economy Department dr. Matej Lahovnik and the Manager of Športni Center Pohorje Drago Rataj, the three people deserving the greatest merits for the quick construction of the new gondola, simultaneously pushed the big red button. The new Pohorje gondola, a single-rope system, with 8-seats cabins and an hourly capacity of 1.000 persons (to be increased in 2011 to 2.400 persons/hour) reached in nine and a half minutes, due to the test period not operating yet at full speed, the top station, also a new one! The happiness was incredible. Only Mr. Martin Leitner, owner of the ropeway manufacturer, was grabbing at his head saying: "Now everybody is going to request an equally speedy construction time."
By boxing up on the podium
"How did I get rid of the yesterday`s anger? In slalom I was boxing the poles, imaging they were my competitors..." explained Tina Maze in the Press Center, being in an excellent mood, just the opposite of the one after the GS race. Only after she was asked to pose for the photographers together with her trainer and buddy Andreo Massi, the quick response was: "No need for!" They left together for the Habakuk`s Coffee shop, where an enthusiastic crew (Team A-Maze) was celebrating the best Tina`s World Cup slalom placement accompanied by a piano and toasting.
"Where is Tina?", was asking Eva Zorko, the organizer`s cashier, hours after the race, holding in her hands a thick envelope (prize money & travel expenses). "She has not picked up her prize money…" Celebration comes first, and then work.
At the 46th Golden Fox the highest prize money, 54.000 € was received by Kathrin Zettel, receiving also the Golden Fox breast-pin for the combined evaluation, - the Pohorje Trophy. Maria Riesch, the silver pin recipient received 21.000 €, Tina Maze, the bronze pin bearer, 13.500 €.
Tina Maze (for the newspaper Večer): "I am unbelievable happy about this achievement, especially after the disappointment on Saturday. I wanted this result so much. I knew that the podium is within reach. But wishes and expectations are one thing; they also have to be achieved. After the first run I had a bad feeling. But this is often misleading. I am very happy to have broken the ice and stopped the line of not so well managed competitions. I was angry and the slalom is an ideal opportunity to get rid of the accumulated anger, because you are boxing the poles, which can in your imagination represent anything. I managed to keep a positive mind. I forgot the Saturday and concentrated myself only to the slalom race. Being in the second slalom run closer to the finish area I heard the cheering of my fans and that gave me an additional spur."
And Andrea Massi about Tina: "I have been trusting Tina for seven years. In the one year, I was not working with her, it was very troublesome, I could not believe, that a competitor, having won three giant slalom victories, could be skiing on such a low quality level. I trust Tina and I know that she is capable of achieving phenomenal results. She is the type, the artist of the skiing sport. She can make skiing a fantasy."
Who is the Beauty of this Fox.., Lindsey or Tina?
There has not been since long a Miss Choice at the Golden Fox event, but just therefore a lot of talking is around this matter. Particularly this year, because Zlatarna Celje (Jewelry Factory) brought a nice advertising brochure, looking after a marketing share of Swarovsky. The mannequin? Of course, Tina Maze!
In the beauty scene there is a similar competition going on as on the snow slopes. Everywhere Tina`s strongest rival is the best lady-skier of the last seasons the American Lindsey Vonn, not being brilliant in Maribor, with an excellent starting point from the first run and making a mistake in the second one.
"Thomas is my rescue buoy! Together we are an excellent team. It would be very hard to keep a good relation, always on the go and being separated," explained Ms. Vonn the marriage with her trainer.
Did also Anja Pearson in Maribor start thinking about family life after eleven successful seasons , announcing with her third place in the giant slalom also an attempt to win a new Golden Fox Trophy, but did not succeed in slalom? Thus the second best (behind Vreni Schneider) Golden Fox remained with "only" seven single race victories, three golden and one diamond pin and with an announcement of a soon departure from the ski-racing scene: My knees cannot stand the daily skiing efforts any more. I promised my body, this to be the last season, to be exposed to the daily torture."
Kathrin Zettel, the double winner and the Golden Fox 2010, was fully concentrated to skiing: "I am very happy about these two victories in Maribor. This slope is apparently good luck for me. I just can`t believe, that I won today. I had a fairly good first run, but Marlies Schild was well ahead of me and was a great favorite. In the second run I took a very big chance, but it did, with some luck, pay out. The slalom victory was my big desire and it became reality today."
Giant slalom too easy?
Tina Maze found after her "only" thirteenth rank in the GS an excuse: "Skiing requires a proper degree of aggressiveness. I was skiing to aggressive for the given snow surface." Later on she spoke out even more directly, saying: "The run was too easy!"
The comment that the giant slalom course in Maribor is too easy did not come only from Tina. Not at least did Mr. Atle Skaardal, Director of the World Cup, at his last summer inspection on Pohorje, discuss with the Chief of the race, the question how to make the course more difficult. After the successful 46th Golden Fox event there was no further open criticism, but the managing trio Srečko Vilar, Gorazd Bedrač and Drago Rataj started a discussion of this matter only one hour after the race. After congratulations and toasting the main issue was just the giant slalom. "We are considering to arrange in the upper part some artificial humps and a more bumpy slope," conceded the secretary general, starting thus right after the successful event with the preparations for the next one in 2011.
After the entire giant slalom course on Pohorje would not be easy, only if it would be permitted to be long enough. Bringing the start gate to the upper station of the chairlift Poštela we would gain the steepest part of the slope, but would exceed the allowed vertical drop. Moving the finish line upwards from the finish arena of the Snow stadium at hotel Arena makes no sense. Perhaps the FIS should reconsider the rigid rules.
This year the 46th Golden Fox was not troubled by lack of snow. Enough had been put on the course already in early December so that even a heavy (and a traditional) Christmas thaw couldn`t do any harm to it. There were some minor snowfalls during December and January, but not sufficient to cover all tracks for tourists. Drago Rataj could not rest on the fame of the newly started gondola. "Only after we would be able to operate the snowmaking machinery on the whole Pohorje area at the same time, we were satisfied. Besides the construction of the second part of the gondola project we shall have to provide for sufficient capacities of water accumulation. It looks like we shall after many years of efforts get the permission to build an accumulation lake at Videc. The system must be capable to produce in one week of freezing weather, regularly in December, enough snow to get all slopes at Bolfenk and Areh ready for skiing."
Croatian –Serbian flag
Though everything was excellent and praised and the racing part of the event was perfect, a small mistake is having a long, strong range, not in Slovenia, but in Croatia. The culprit was a flag, a Croatian one, but on a Serbian background…
The Golden Fox was in the headlines of Croatian TV news without having one of their skiers on the podium.
It all happened unintentionally, having in mind something nice. The young skiers of the SK Branik carried the poled flags of all participating nations down the finish slope before the GS start, followed by the national anthem of Slovenia sung by Alenka Gotar (by Zoran Predin on Sunday). A journalist of the Croatian internet ski portal "skijanje.net" noticed, something was wrong with the Croatian flag. The Croatian chessboard was set on the Serbian flag background. Srečko Vilar, Secretary general, apologized formally for the mistake, the diplomats were writing reports one week long, but then also this story was put aside, among curiosities of the past Golden Foxes.
VIP`s in three different VIP areas
An interview of Dani Kline for the newspaper VEČER discovered, what happened twenty years ago: "I am keeping strongest in my mind a day in January 1990, as Mr. Drnovšek, at that time President of the Yugoslav Presidency, visited the Golden Fox. His schedule was to stay for only one day, because next day he was supposed to attend the congress of the KP and it was quite out of question he wouldn`t do it. But, we convinced him to stay also for Sunday`s race. He was dressed for public life, not for open air activities in winter, wearing a formal suit and shoes. He had to be redressed with boots, warm pants and ski jacket. Uroš Mencinger, Chief of Press and I went out to hunt for this outfit. In the small, now ceased, factory Okus from Radlje, three or four different color jackets were sawn and then both of us went to buy pants and boots. The shops didn`t care whether we needed it for the president, I just had to write a check - I never asked to get it refunded. This way I bought a pair of pants for Mr. President. I had troubles to get to his room with the pants in the bag, passing through a crowd of his security men, and found him having eggs for breakfast and watching cartoons."
There were neither president nor prime minister present at the 46th Golden Fox - the Patron of Honor was the President - but in spite of that Mr. Dani Kline, Chief of the Protocol, didn`t have it much easier. "The increasing fame of the Golden Fox is making the decisions more difficult. The politicians and other people of the public life are trying to increase their publicity. We would be of course glad to invite to the event also people of the lower political ranks, but we have restricted funds and space. Some invited persons appear with complete families or even with their friends causing thus uneasy situations, because they do not understand that an invitation is valid for the invited person and his/her partner only. The lower the level, the more important persons want to appear and are making a lot of wind."
For the invited people different spaces were provided: for the GOLD SPONSORS a tent with 650 seats was available but 800 tickets were ordered; in the "old" Arena the protocol guests were served Steyer`s and Protner`s wines; the new Arena hosted the GOLD VIP guests with a selection of goodies, which I described in the paper NEDELO: "The Golden Fox offers also (good) food and drinks… The public visitors were enjoying these in the open tent, the invited guests under free sky and snowflakes. The first ones couldn`t evade the traditional "pleskavica", while the invited guests had to stand in a long line to get to the big pan, where Manja Polak, a teacher of cooking, was tearing apart big pancakes with a big wooden ladle making "pohorski šmorn" – "outer burnt, inner soft"! While the competitors were showing the crowd of 20.000 spectators ( in two days) how to beat the icy slope of the Snow stadium, the cooks of hotel Arena and the crew of the College for tourism and catering proved that the grill is not the only culinary feature of each Slovenian feast. Starting with the 46th Golden Fox there won`t be anything more, concerning the "standing meals", as it used to be. Besides the "šmorn", that was served with apple sauce on plastic plates, there shall be "allowed" also: bujta repa /turnip pot/, matevž, barley with mushrooms, fried Brussels sprouts on potatoes and speck, game ragout served with cranberries, baked potatoes with pumpkin seeds, one bite black and grilled sausages…
Who did not get thirsty at all this food? It was flowing heavily, traditionally and on two evenings in the Vinag wine-cellar, where also news came up, that Piramida is probably getting soon a new vintner. Thus for the most popular Slovenian wine grower a long living wish comes to life, to prove in the center of Maribor, what can be achieved applying the "briški" knowledge to the Renski rizling . Altogether the Brici invaded Štajerska with the first squad… Stanko Radikon had the idea; Aleš Kristančič promoted himself as president, joined by Marjan Simčič, Niko Bensa and Dario Princic they proclaimed: "The Golden Fox of Maribor is the best ski competition and the golden ribbola is the best ribbola, in the world, of course!" Because the tasting of so many different characters and so intensive searching through the wine depots so successful in Maribor and then in Rožmarin, it was decided to repeat the story also in Kitzbuehl."
In spite of all three VIP`s the most fun was with the visitors, those who bought tickets (adults 4 €, kids 2 €) and had no accreditation. A big bunch of joyous town people - named themselves Lisjaki - took on both days a position along the course, just behind the big screen. They had a real ski party supported by 270 liters of wine and plenty of grilled meat, and they were not the only ones. Every day there were more than ten thousand spectators having great fun either inside the fenced area (no alcohol) or outside (with beer and hot wine). Top attraction was the public Fest tent with live music and dancing, holding 2.500 people. Adding to these figures also about 3.000 people attending the opening, the public draws and prize-giving ceremonies on both days in the city of Maribor, this Golden Fox did not break the records, but was one of the best visited World Cup events in the season 2009/10.
In the past years we had more visitors only in:
- the year 1990, the last Golden Fox under the former Yugoslav state, having on a sunny Sunday 20.000 spectators, attracted by the victory of Mateja Svet at the giant slalom on Saturday. The favorite for the slalom was Veronika Šarec, who won the slalom in Haus, just before the Maribor event. Some visitors might have come just to see the Patron of Honor, dr. Janez Drnovšek;
- the year 1993, at the jubilant 30th Golden Fox, over 40.000 in both days. A veterans` race took also place and it was the season when for the first time the devil`s Slovenian girls Urška Horvat, Špela Pretnar and Katja Koren were successful;
- the year 1996, in two days came again 40.000 fans and just on Sunday 98 visiting buses were counted;
- more buses arrived only in 2003, altogether 126, bringing to the slalom race with Janica Kostelić over 12.500 Croatian fans among the 20.000 visitors.
After Senčar not another Senčar
Mirko Lorenci put a journalist`s question: "After Senčar another Senčar?" Secretary general Srečko Vilar answered: "We decided, there shall not be another Senčar after Senčar." Then he presented his view of the Golden Fox future.
"The Golden Fox changed in Maribor the attitude to view and approach to such events. It means, did not have in mind only the problems of the Ski Club Branik and the local level ski-racing, but started to get in touch with the outer world and with the international skiing society. This led us to get involved also with tourism and skiing facilities (e.g. lifts, slopes). The basic idea of organizing a World Cup race was upgraded with many other things."
Next journalist`s question was more direct: "We can often hear the opinion that Rataj and Vilar are making good money with the Golden Fox."
Srečko Vilar: "I know these stories and I was very upset at the beginning. In connection with the forced construction of the new gondola I was deeply hurt, listening at the Town Council`s meeting some people saying, it was a project that covered only our personal interests. None of them is aware, that Športni center Pohorje arouse out of the Ski Club Branik, due to the legal restriction which prevented club to be engaged with economic activities like tourism and hostelry, which it was practicing till then. A private corporation was created under the presumption that anyone who believes in it shall buy the shares. It was not big money, though not so small to be put in by those, who didn`t trust the project. In the past twelve years of its existence no profits had been paid to the shareholders, it can be checked with the State Tax Office. And after the twelve years we have only a strong, but heavily indebted company, personally nobody anything, including myself. I am still convinced that the project is very beneficent for the local tourism industry and the government deserves an acknowledgment for having supported this good project."
And something from the Press Center
How many journalists were present? So many, that some of that had to seat on the floor in the big congress hall of hotel Habakuk. So many, that they consumed on Saturday 100 kilos of turkey meat served as wiener schnitzels. So many, that a 100 MB optical cable was needed for the internet service.
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