Photo Jon Olsson Invitational

The FIS World Cup season may be over but FIS athletes are still busy skiing for great causes and with the pressure and stress over, they are out having some fun too.

Saturday March 31st saw the annual Verbier High Five race, a chance for amateur athletes to race against some of the world's best skiers such as Switzerland's Didier Cuche and Didier Défago, Adrien Théaux (FRA) Tina Mazé (SLO), Fränzi Aufdenblatten (SUI) and Tina Weirather (LIE). The weekend is accompanied by a meet and greet with the athletes and a charity dinner on the Friday evening prior that benefits Right To Play and Swiss sports development, followed by a day of fun filled races Saturday. On the other side of Switzerland, the same weekend hosted the Red Bull skills event in Lenzerheide, a single race track combining super-G, slalom, downhill and giant slalom. The event is a great way to bring international competition to an exciting stage with over 100 athletes participating on the Silvano Beltrametti piste. Moving slightly further east across the Alps, the Südtirol Gardenissima was likewise star-studded and successful, integrating local ski enthusiasts with World Cup stars such as Hannes Reichelt (AUT) and Lisa Magdalena Agerer. The 16th edition of the event boasted the longest giant slalom in the world at 6km in length and about 1000m of altitude difference in order to celebrate each ski season with a spectacular end.

This past weekend hosted similar events in Sweden and Canada with the Jon Olssen Invitational in Are and the Bozo Cup in Banff, Canada. Freestyle and alpine skiers convened in Are for a weekend of records as the first switch double 1620 was landed at the big air competition alongside the parallel slalom course. In honor of late Rob Bosinger, once a member of the Canadian National Alpine Ski Team, the Bozo Cup raised money in support of young alpine skiers on their journey to success.

Here are the links:

Verbier High 5 - http://www.verbierhighfivebycarlsberg.com/high-five/en

Redbull Skills Events - http://www.redbull.ch/cs/Satellite/de_CH/Sports/Winter-Sports/Red-Bull-Skills-2012/001243160066145

Südtirol Gardenissima - http://www.valgardena.it/gardenissima/

Jon Olssen Invitational - http://jon-olsson.com/

Bozo Cup - http://www.bozocup.com/

Contributed by Mari Mathews

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