Winter sports open bidding process for IPC World Championships

The governing bodies of Paralympic alpine skiing and snowboarding and biathlon and cross-country have opened their bid processes for their 2019 and 2021 World Championships ©Getty Images

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Alpine Skiing and Snowboard and IPC Biathlon and Cross-Country have officially launched their bidding process for their respective 2019 and 2021 World Championships.

Both governing bodies have set a deadline of December 18 this year for prospective candidates who may wish to enter the race for their events while they have also said they will consider joint bids.

They require one host for alpine skiing, one for snowboard and one for biathlon and cross-country combined.

The World Championships in alpine skiing and snowboard, as well as biathlon and cross-country, will come in the cycle which follows the 2018 Paralympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

“The 2019 and 2021 editions of these Championships will be incredibly important for the growth of all the sports particularly in Asia, as we have two consecutive Paralympic Winter Games taking place in the region,” head of IPC snow sports Dimitrije Lazarovski said with the 2022 Games set for Beijing.

“We are focusing a lot of our efforts on developing para-snow sports there and we expect to have more athletes than ever before from those countries.

“We have also increased the scale and quality of each of the World Championships every time, with very successful Worlds in 2015 that increased broadcasting and media interest and raised organisational standards across the board.

“This is great for the sports, the host countries and resorts.

“We are looking for organisers that want to put their own unique mark on the Championships and help us once again take the sports to the next level.”

The Spanish resort of La Molina played host to the first-ever IPC Para-Snowboard World Championships in February of this year ©Getty Images

Around 140 athletes from 30 countries are expected to compete in the Alpine Skiing World Championships, with snowboarding attracting 120 athletes from the same amount of nations.

Roughly 150 skiers from 20 countries are set to participate in each edition of the IPC Cross-Country and Biathlon World Championships.

The opening of the bid process for both events follows the 2015 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships, which were successfully staged in Panorama, Canada, and the IPC Nordic Skiing World Championships, held in Cable, Wisconsin.

The first-ever IPC Snowboard World Championships also took place this year in La Molina, Spain, and followed the sport’s debut at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.