HISTORY
On 30 June 973, German emperor Otton II. gave the territory of Loka to Bishop Abraham of Freising as a present. On this date, the day of the municipality of Škofja Loka is celebrated. One thousand years later, the year 1973 is also the birth-date of Pokal Loka, international children's competition in alpine skiing, which is one of the oldest such competitions in the world in addition to the Italian Topolino and the Czech Skiinterkriterium.
From the pioneer's years, when early direction in professional skiing and consequently children's competitions was in the fledgling stages and when the International Ski Federation was not in favour of such development, the situation has changed considerably. Today, 17 international children’s competitions are on the skiing calendar, of which only the Canadian competition Whistler Cup takes place outside Europe. The number of competing countries varies from organiser to organiser. In 2008, 48 countries participated in Topolino competition and 33 in Pinocchio. Competitors from 25 to 30 countries take part in Pokal Loka, La Scara and Interkriterium. Thus, between 250 and 350 competitors in 4 categories take part in every competition. This exceeds the number of competitors in World or Continental Cups.To organise such an event is a demanding project, which includes various financial, logistic and, last, professional skiing tasks as well as knowledge – with, unfortunately, very weak media support in comparison to the aforementioned Cups.
The biggest and traditional organizers of Topolino and Pinocchio from Italy, Interkriterium from the Czech Republic, Pokal Loka from Slovenia, La Scara from France, Borrufa Trophy from Andorra, Ingemar Trofen from Sweden, Whistler Cup from Canada, Bambi kup from Serbia and Zagal Trophy from Spain have established an Organizing Committee Association and meet on a yearly basis to discuss their experience. Mauro Detassis, the chairman from Trento, takes part in FIS Coordination Group for Youth and Children, where our wishes and needs are heard at least in the technical sense.
We strive to fulfil our key goal, which is to organise high-quality events for the youngest and enable them to meet their peers from the entire world. At the same time, we would like to organize an event of world importance in our home town. The success of our work can be evaluated by our ski-friends, some of which have been coming to Slovenia for several years.
