History
34th Golden Fox 1997
(03. 01. - 04. 01. 1997)Juan Antonio Samaranch was circling in heavy icy rain for 50 minutes above the airport of Maribor in his Lear jet 35, before did happily land after the third attempt. With him was also Marc Hodler, President of the FIS. They were welcomed in the Snow stadium, with the new Branik hotel ARENA, by Mr. Milan Kucan, President of Slovenia and a crowd of 10.000 people. The three notabilities were later presenting the Golden Fox awards in this order: Marc Hodler- the Bronze Fox to Deborah Compagnoni, second in GS ; Juan Antonio Samaranch- the Silver Fox to the slalom winner Pernilla Wibergand Milan Kucan- the Golden Fox to the second placed in slalom and the fourth in GS - Urska Hrovat!
Dusan Sencar had the idea to invite Samaranch, officially the marquis was invited by Janez Kocjancic, President of the Slovenian Olympic Committee. Most likely the invitation was supported by Gilbert Felli, whose sister Madelaine was telling him already 32 years ago, how nice it was at the Golden Fox events, always visited by many spectators. Madelaine Felli was the first elected Miss Pohorje at the 2nd Golden Fox in 1965!
The landing problems made a big mess within the official protocol. Samarach came due to late arrival directly to the Snow stadium instead of going to the Town hall. After the race President Kucan gave a lunch reception to his honor in the Castle Betnava, confering on him the high state decoration - The Golden Medal of Freeedom.
From there the honorable guests went on to the Town Hall, were Samaranch was presented the Golden Key of Maribor and awarded to become the Honorable Citizen of Maribor by Borut Ambrozic, President of the Town Council. The Slovenian Olympic Committee had a ceremonial meeting at the Kazinska dvorana, followed by a press conference with Samaranch. He met also with Leon Stukelj, who succeeded to got from him two promises: that Slovenia shall get a steady member-seat in the IOC and second, the IOC shall make a contribution of 20.000 $ for the gymnastic center in Ljubljana. „Besides all known good qualities of Mr. Stukelj I discovered that he is a good diplomat too. He put me two questions and I answered both with ’yes’“, told Samaranch, who invited Stukelj to visit the Olympic games in Sidney and promised to come to his 100th birthday. His comment to the event was: “I am convienced that the FIS President Marc Hodler will agree with me, the Golden Fox to be one of the best ski events in the world.“
At day under reflectors
Again excellent notes for the organization of the competitions in spite of the unfavorable weather. One month ago there was a strange inversion of temperature, showing at Bellevue and in the finish area above zero, while on the Habakuk slope there was 4°C below, just right for the 11 snow-guns to fill up area with snow. Then there came three weeks of uncertainty. One week ahead of the race Sencar already was saying: “We’ll have the races on the upper slopes!“ Then came the cold front. All week long 18°C below zero and the lower course was covered with 70.000 m³ of snow. Ideally!
The GS race was disturbed by fog, the slalom first by rain, then by icy rain, followed by snow. The help came by the new reflectors being installed on the lower part of the course, giving white light, breaking the fog and making a good TV broadcast possible. A new record: 21 TV reporters! Altogether 315 journalists, 110 from abroad.
Sabina Panzanini won a little bit surprisingly the GS, Pernilla Wiberg with no surprise the slalom race. She said: “I always like to come back to Maribor, because it is most pleasant to race in front of the audience of this town.“
Urska Hrovat came sick to the start, because she caught cold at the slalom in Semmering with temperatures of 30°C below- but she did an excellent race. "Most likely you noticed tears in my eyes as I was on the winners’ podium; that is to prove, that I am crying not only when I fail, but also when I am good.“ Well racing were also Mojca Suhadolc, 15th in GS and Natasa Bokal, 12th in slalom.
First time on the internet
The OC put for the first time the Golden Fox into the internet, something new for the World Cup. In two days the Golden Fox page had over 1500 contacts from all over of the world.
After several years the opening ceremony was again on the square Trg svobode, visited mainly by the youth, dancing in the could weather at the tunes the Soul fingers from Zagreb. The gala evening in Narodni dom was a big success, a lesser one the VIP club, that did not attract to many journalists and guests with its cyber cafe. But the Vinag cellar was visited by over 600 persons ...
The VIP tent in the finish was intended for sponsors and VIP guests, but on Saturday over 1000 people were in(looking for a shelter from the freezing rain). Mr. Kucan was the only one persisting on the tribune waiting for the last Slovenian racer to pass the finish line. He was accompanied by Srecko Vilar, Secretary general of the OC, getting as a reward in the next week the title of the „Person of the week“ in the newspaper Vecer.
The journalist had their working area in the restaurant on the lower level of the hotel Arena, the teams in the lobby bar and the protocol quests in the main restaurant. On the first day only about 4000 visitors came to the ski arena, on the second day over 10.000. Two of them ’went’ home with two Rovers 114 GS, sponsored for the drawing of the admission tickets by Tehnounion in cooperation with Integra. At the 34th Golden Fox event were accredited over 3.000 people!
Zavarovalnica Maribor was the General sponsor, Droga the Patron, Big Star, Vecer and Mobitel were also strong sponsors. Foreign sponsors were: Cafe de Colombia, Milka and Levissima.
The OC signed in summer a marketing contract for advertising abroad with the Italian agency Halva.
Halva’s people came to Maribor with banners signed ’Park City’ and they didn’t provide the OC on time with the adds that should have been printed on the poster and in the official bulletin. The trouble was resolved by the experts of the OC in an hour by printing additional stickers ’Maribor’ and logos of the sponsors, that were attached onto the posters. These could be managed only by expert foxes..!
Another mess in the air
Problems above the tribune during the slalom race. The hot-air of the Post lost its anchor and was banging to the other two, threatening to cause them to break off too or even to catch fire. The pilot of the first balloon cut off his anchor line and was pretty soon lost in the foggy altitudes. There was a real danger, that he could land on the racing slope due to the fog, but fortunately he heard the speaker’s voice (Vinko Simek and his assistant- the ’flying’ Danilo Sesko) and could land safely next to the parking lot.
Bojan Krizaj was celebrating at the Golden Fox his 40th birthday, Ivo Turk, the legendary Chef in the Hotel Slavija, his 60th. He invited to the party all journalists and offered them 100 liter of wine and 10 kg of beefsteak Tartar.
