World Cup's Swiss Army Knife?

To make things easier to organize and manage, Ski World Cup organizer love to hold as many events as possible on one single hill. To a degree, this may work for some venues like the Birds of Prey in Beaver Creek, but it's not always so great elsewhere.

Take Val D'Isère and Bellevarde as an example. The multiple use works to some degree for the downhill, that is nonetheless very much "man-made" in its overall topography. It's also okay as a slalom hill, but doesn't seem to function well when used for Super G or GS.

Yesterday, Ted Ligety got quite vocal about it and posted his dismay on Facebook. He said he had a love-hate relationship with Val D'Isère “An awesome place to ski but an awful race hill” he said. He went on about the steep and short race hill, “they have to set the course very tight, average of 21-22 m from gate to gate, with several under 17 m, at nearly a slalom distance, where all other hills have a 25-32 m distance gate to gate. A few meters makes a huge difference in skiability, especially with the new skis...”

According to Ted that sentiment was echoed by 98% of the racers (Hirscher and Luitz probably begged to differ), so go figure, but Ligety probably has another solid point and his ranting may validate the saying: “Jack of all trades and master of none” when applied to Bellevarde.