The 2021 Alpine World Ski Championships will be held in Cortina d'Ampezzo in Italy on schedule, the International Ski Federation (FIS) said on Thursday, over-ruling a request by organisers to delay the competition a year. The Italian skiing federation had asked in May to postpone the event to 2022, as the Veneto region was particularly hard-hit by the coronavirus. That would have meant the World Championships would have taken place a few weeks before the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing. "Since this request, the majority of the FIS family has come to the support of the Italian winter sports federation in order to work on a solution that would allow the 2021 World Championships in Cortina to be held on the planned dates," wrote the FIS in a statement without giving details of any possible arrangements. As of July 1, COVID-19 has caused 34,788 deaths in Italy, the fourth most affected country in the world, including 2,022 in Veneto. rg/pb/iwd