Gian Franco Kasper has never been known to like to hold back his words. With age, his taste for a direct and unnuanced style sometimes leads him onto slippery slopes.
At the start of a week, the 75-year-old president of the International Ski Federation (FIS) gave an interview to the German-speaking Swiss daily Tages anzeiger, on the occasion of the opening of the Alpine Ski World Championships in Are, Sweden. She made a big noise.
Asked about the ecological impact of artificial snow, Gian Franco Kasper attacked hard. Listening to him, the phenomenon is anecdotal. “ All this talk about artificial snow or wasting water never stops, although not a drop of water is wasted, suggested the Swiss leader, president of the FIS since 1988. The energy that this requires is something else. But in terms of water loss, it's the same when you water the garden. And then there is this so-called climate change... There is no proof. We have snow, sometimes even a lot. »
Very lively, Gian Franco Kasper hit the nail on the head by recalling the extreme weather conditions at the start of the event at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Games. “ To everyone who came up to me shivering, I said, “Welcome to global warming! » There have always been warm winters and cold ones. " Not false.
At this stage of the interview, the comments of the Swiss leader, one of the elders of the IOC, could still have been seen as only excessive, or even only provocative. But Gian Franco Kasper slipped up with a bang when mentioning the Beijing Winter Games in 2022. “ Dictators can indeed organize such demonstrations without asking permission from the people. For us, everything is easier in dictatorships. From a business point of view, I would only go to dictatorships. So I wouldn't have to fight with environmentalists. » The Chinese must have appreciated it.
Radical. And above all very unwelcome, just a few days after the visit to China of Thomas Bach, the president of the IOC. A visit to the sites of the next Winter Games during which the Olympic institution repeated like a refrain that the event promises to be the greenest in history.
Incidentally, Gian Franco Kasper did not refrain from a very strong attack towards FIFA. “ I don't want to go to a country that invests in skiing while letting its people starve. If Qatar asks for the Olympics, I would not be in favor of it. » And wham !
