BERN, Switzerland (AP) — Swiss soccer's annual awards ceremony scheduled for next week was postponed Monday as the nation mourns the fatal fire tragedy on New Year’s Day at a bar in Crans-Montana.
The Swiss Football League said jointly with the national soccer federation “holding the event is not appropriate” in Bern on Jan. 12, and a decision will be taken later on whether to reschedule it.
Awards at “Swiss Football Night” include the best players in the men’s and women’s national teams and national leagues.
The annual “Swiss Sports Awards” live television broadcast scheduled Sunday also was postponed during the period of national mourning.
Skier Camille Rast, who is from the Valais canton (state) that includes Crans-Montana, wore a black armband when winning back-to-back World Cup races in Slovenia at the weekend.
Swiss citizens made up the majority of 40 people killed and 116 injured in the fire that tore through a busy ski resort bar during New Year celebrations.
Investigators believe sparkling candles atop Champagne bottles ignited the fire when they came too close to the ceiling.
Swiss authorities have opened a criminal investigation into the two bar managers suspected of involuntary homicide, involuntary bodily harm and involuntarily causing a fire.
Crans-Montana will host World Cup downhill races for men and women at a Jan. 30-Feb. 1 meeting which is the last before Alpine skiers go to the Milan Cortina Olympics that open Feb. 6.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
The flags at the Federal Palace fly at half-mast in Bern, Switzerland, for 5 days, Friday Jan. 2, 2026, following the fire at the "Le Constellation" bar and lounge in Crans-Montana, Switzerland during the New Year celebration. (Anthony Anex/Keystone via AP)
You might be inclined to think of freestyle skiing as one of the new kids on the block at the Winter Olympics — after all, there are lot of young athletes doing it — but some of the freeskiiing sports were introduced at the Calgary Games some 38 years ago.
Four decades of familiarity with moguls, the halfpipe, big air and more have turned some of these daring athletes into household names and their tricks have gotten more and more creative.
The three most popular disciplines in this sport fall under the category of “freeskiing” — halfpipe, slopestyle and big air. Those are judged contests in which skiers are graded on how high they fly and the difficulty of their tricks. In moguls, skiers are scored on their form through the bumps and two jumps along with their overall speed. In aerials, which shares some similarities with big air, skiers flip and twist as soar more than 40 feet (12 meters) into the air. There's also skicross, a set of side-by-side elimination showdowns that closes with a four-person race for the medals.
Eileen Gu is the star of this sport. She grew up in San Francisco but competes for her mother's native country of China. Four years ago, she became the first action-sports athlete to win three medals at one Olympics — gold in halfpipe and big air and silver in slopestyle. Canada's Mikael Kingsbury is generally viewed as the best moguls skier of all time. He had 99 World Cup wins heading into this season, along with a gold and two silver medals at the Olympics. American Alex Hall, who considers himself as much of an artist as an athlete on the slopes, looks to defend his title in slopestyle.
The venues are in Livigno, a three-hour drive northeast of Milan. Some of the key dates include big air Feb. 14-17, halfpipe Feb. 19-21 and skicross Feb. 20-21.
Halfpipe freeskiing debuted in 2014, shortly after its foremost pioneer, Sarah Burke, died in a training accident. She had lobbied to get freeskiing into the Olympics. On a magical night in Russia, Burke's parents were in the stands to watch the contest, which ended with the maintenance crew paying tribute to her by skiing down the halfpipe in the shape of a heart. In 2022, Gu capped off her third medal of the Beijing Games — a gold — with a joy-filled “victory lap” down the halfpipe after she had already secured the victory.
Slopestyle courses double as works of art; at the Olympics, it gives course builders a chance incorporate elements of their country into the Olympic playing field. In Russia, skiers had the option of jumping over a giant Russian nesting doll. In Beijing, the course was lined with a replica of the Great Wall, complete with a guard house (the “shred shed”) built as an option on the rails course. It's a secretive process, and as of now, what visual treats will line the course at Livigno Snow Park remain a mystery.
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
FILE - Olympic hopeful U.S. freestyle skier, Alex Hall, poses for a photo at Team USA Media Summit, on Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)
FILE - In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, Gold medalist Eileen Gu Ailing of China poses during the awards ceremony for the women's halfpipe finals at FIS Freeski World Cup 2025 in Zhangjiakou, north China's Hebei Province, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. (Luo Yuan/Xinhua via AP, File)
FILE - Canada's Mikael Kingsbury competes in the men's moguls at the Freestyle World Championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland, Wednesday, March 19, 2025. (Gian Ehrenzeller/Keystone via AP, File)
