Andorra · Final of the Alpine Skiing World Cup

The Alpine Ski World Cup is a series of races held annually by the International Ski and Snowboard Federation FIS. Unlike at the World Ski Championships, the titles are not awarded in a single tournament. The athletes collect points during a season; at the final event, the last decisions are made regarding the overall World Cup and the standings in the individual disciplines. As a rule, only the best-placed athletes of the season as well as certain title holders and junior athletes are eligible to compete there. The programme comprises downhill, super-G, giant slalom and slalom; a team event was added in 2019.

The venue was the Grandvalira ski area, comprising the Soldeu and El Tarter sectors. Competitions were held mainly on the Avet piste at Soldeu and Àliga at El Tarter. Grandvalira was created by merging previously separate ski areas and extends across several valleys in eastern Andorra. Its altitude in the Pyrenees enables winter sports despite the microstate’s southern location.

Andorra had already organised international FIS races before 2019. Alpine World Cup races were held in Soldeu for the first time in the country in 2012; further competitions followed. For the final, the pistes, snowmaking, timekeeping, safety installations, media areas and transport routes had to meet the requirements of an event bringing together the leading female and male competitors in all alpine disciplines.

Winter sports are also of economic and political importance to Andorra. The country has a small area and, alongside trade and services, has strongly geared its tourism industry towards mountain and winter sports. Hosting the World Cup final provided an opportunity to make the infrastructure developed for this purpose visible internationally and to position Andorra as a potential host of further competitions. The coin issue thus placed the sporting event within the state self-representation of the principality. The Catalan language of the inscription also refers to Andorra’s official language and its distinct cultural identity between France and Spain.