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Val Gardena

History of Skiing

The history of skiing in Val Gardena goes back to the turn of the century. Of course things were different then. The skis were shaped out of wood and a long pole was used for braking and turning. The first ski club, called Ladinia, was soon founded, and in 1908 the first ski race was held through the Dantercepies Wood to Selva Gardena. In addition to visitors from near and far, the locals were soon into skiing and proved themselves very good at it, too. In fact Winter Olympics would not have been Winter Olympics without skiers from Val Gardena! Vincenzo Demetz won two bronze medals in Chamonix (Cross-Country World Championship in 1937), Karl Senoner became Slalom World Champion in Portillo (Chile) in 1966, Pepi Ploner Vice World Champion in the cross-country relay event (1985), Peter Runggaldier Vice World Downhill Champion (1991) and Super-G World-Cup Winner, Isolde Kostner won two bronze medals in Lillehammer and became Super-G World Champion in Sierra Nevada and in Sestriere and Simon Demetz became Biathlon World Champion. Werner Perathoner, too, is a well known skier from Val Gardena.
There have been many other great names over the years, too, like Mauro Bernardi, Eberhard Schmalzl, Alex Giorgi and Ivan and Michela Marzola.
In 1970 Val Gardena hosted the Alpine Ski World Champi- onships. The champions that year were Karl Schranz, Patrik Russel and Jean Noel Augert. Today the champions still come to Val Gardena in mid-December - for the World Cup Downhill on the Saslonch (Ciampinoi - Ruacia).

At Val Gardena, there is tourist accommodation available in hotels, farm holiday, farmhouse, residence self-catering accommodation, mountain chalets, b&b, rooms for rent, holiday homes, camp sites and tourist villages.

Val Gardena