Kitzbühel delights with two snow polo weekends for the first time

For more than 20 years, snow polo has been firmly anchored in the Kitzbühel events calendar on the weekend before the legendary Hahnenkamm Races. This winter season, polo enthusiasts were delighted to see a second polo tournament at the beginning of January for the first time.

Polo is a difficult team sport, whereby playing on snow is once again considered a special discipline. There are only two events of this kind at world level - in Kitzbühel and in St. Moritz.

Bendura Bank Snow Polo World Cup

Snow Polo in Kitzbühel has a long tradition on the Mühlnerfeld in Reith near Kitzbühel and has been delighting international polo fans since 2003. Lifestyle Events, who are in charge of organizing this event, are supported by a top-class team of sponsors, local hotels, companies and experts, the town of Kitzbühel and Kitzbühel Tourism in staging this event. The newly prepared polo pitch in Reith offers optimal conditions for players and horses thanks to state-of-the-art technology and careful maintenance.

At the Bendura Bank Snow Polo World Cup in Kitzbühel, there are four playing sections with an effective playing time of seven minutes each. Three players per team each take on a new pony in the so-called chukka or chukkers and try to hit the ball into the opposing team's goal with a wooden mallet.

Exciting matches, well-known personalities, polo enthusiasts and sunshine once again made this tournament a complete success in a fantastic setting. In addition to the main sponsor Bendura Bank, seven other high-quality companies competed with their polo teams, with Intocast taking the victory.

Kitzbühel Tourism Managing Director Dr. Viktoria Veider-Walser sums up the event with satisfaction: "At an event of this size, it is essential that everyone pulls together. This weekend has once again shown how strong the cohesion in the region is." It was also extremely pleasing that the public area was very well attended. Kitzbühel Tourismus is particularly keen to make this attractive for everyone. In order to make the sport of polo accessible to the younger generation, guided tours were organized between the two tournaments.

Kitzbühel Snow Polo Cup

From January 4 to 7, 2024, the Kitzbühel Snow Polo World Cup took place for the first time as a medium goal tournament. This weekend, six teams with top players competed against each other from Friday to Sunday. The big difference to the second polo weekend is the team handicap: while the team handicap for high-goal tournaments goes up to +12, the teams in medium-goal tournaments play with a maximum team handicap of +10. The handicap describes how good the players are - the higher the handicap, the better.

Similar to golf, players in polo are assigned a handicap from -2 to +10. If you add up the individual handicaps of the players in the team, you get the team handicap. If teams of different strengths play against each other, a goal difference is calculated using a fixed formula, which is credited to the weaker team from the start of the game - this can be just half a goal, for example.

Equestrian sports enthusiasts can already look forward to the next event. The big horse race on snow will take place on Saturday, February 03, 2024.

All information about the destination Kitzbühel can be found at kitzbuehel.com