Ski, the ghost World Championship in Cortina 1941: disputed and canceled – Corriere.it

This is the story of a World forgotten, even canceled. Transformed into a ghost, despite the fact that he had nothing or nothing of the ghost: it was in fact an officially announced and celebrated demonstration, complete with public, authorities and journalists. And with feats, in some cases even heroic, followed by awards, medals, ceremonies.

Have you ever heard of the 1941 White World Championship in Cortina d’Ampezzo? Almost certainly not, because it simply does not appear in the cards: removed because not only was it disputed in wartime, but above all because it was believed to have been the bass drum of the Nazi-fascist ideology and propaganda for use by the Axis powers. Max Vergani, head of the press office of the Italian Winter Sports Federation, has thus decided to bring the news and the protagonists of those days back to the surface with a book (Cortina41-Il Mondo fantasma; Edizioni inContropiede, 190 pages, € 18.50) which before everything wants to give to Caesar what of Caesar, or the right recognition to those who are involved in that event.

So Cortina has not only hosted the 1927 Fis Nordic skiing competition, the 1932 World Ski Championship, the 1956 Games and – waiting the 2026 Games in synergy with Milan – the further world championship of the Alpine in 2021. No, there was also this wide-ranging championship, because more disciplines were involved. It was at the beginning of 1941 (1-9 February) and between the Tofane and the Cristallo they went on stage Alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, Nordic combined and special jumping tests, as well as the historic race for military patrols, forerunner of biathlon.

How was it possible to play a World Cup in time of war? Certainly – explains Vergani – a role was played by the two Axis powers, Italy and Germany, in flattering the leaders of international sport and in particular of the International Ski Federation. But part of the “scandal” can also be attributed to the at least wavering attitude of the latter, if we can thus define the whole path that starts from the decision to think about the World Cup, authorize it, organize it, play it, and, a few years later, cancel it from history. In the common memory almost nothing remains of that world championship and there are no great traces of it even in books or other publications related to the subject. Simply, it hints at that the World Cup took place but was useless, as it was later canceled.

It was mainly of interest to athletes, and remained a worry for all those who on that occasion had perhaps the moment of greatest glory of their career. So it can be said for Alberto Marcellin, who won important medals and that only a few years later he had to give up forever a career of great international standing. The same can be said for Vittorio Chierroni, who will never become world champion again and who will leave his most beautiful days on the snow of Cortina, then stopped by a war that was too long not to affect its competitive history. But the same cannot be said – underlines Vergani – of Celina Seghi, passed away last July at 102 years of age. She has lost her world title at the level of golden books and bureaucracy, but throughout her life she has kept the memory of being able to defeat the unbeatable German Christl Cranz. Not surprisingly, Celina opens and closes the story I wanted to tell.

Probably, beyond the infinite contradictions of this story, it was corrected the decision of the International Federation to cancel a World Cup that took place in time of war, without the participation of nations not aligned with Nazi-fascism. But we must not have doubts about the value of some results that emerged from those races, the outcome of which would probably have been the same even in the presence of the British, Norwegians and so on. For many years to follow, the 1941 champions did not have the opportunity to demonstrate on the field the value of the titles won in Cortina.
Someone had the chance to win again, as happened to Zeno Col, who managed to become Olympic and world champion even though he was no longer young. Someone, however, disappeared into oblivion. I had no doubts – concludes the author – about which was the only part that was worth taking sides for in telling the ghost World Cup: that of the athletes. Their exploits are what is worth and what remains: I hope that this book will finally be able to shed some light on those stories and those protagonists.