St Moritz loses out on 2013 ski championships
The exclusive Swiss skiing resort of St Moritz has been beaten by Austrian rival Schladming in its bid to host the 2013 World Ski Championships.
Schladming, which hosted the event in 1982, was chosen by governing body FIS at its annual congress in South Africa.
The Austrian bid received ten of the 16 votes, beating twin resorts Vail-Beaver Creek in the United States, which received four votes. Cortina d'Ampezzo in Italy and St Moritz received one vote each.
"The fact that we lost today we have to accept," said Duri Bezzola, president of the Swiss skiing association. "But the fact that we have so few friends surprises me."
Schladming will be the seventh consecutive world championships venue in Europe. The last non-European venue was Vail-Beaver Creek in 1999.
The 2009 World Ski Championships will be held in February in the French resort of Val d'Isère, followed by Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany in 2011.
FIS also named other 2013 world championships venues: snowboarding in Stoneham, Canada; Nordic skiing in Val Di Fiemme, Italy; freestyle skiing in Voss, Norway; and ski flying in Vikersund, Norway.
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
Contributions under this article have been turned off. You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.