Things are coming to a head in the downhill World Cup: Two races before the end of the season, just 28 points separate the top 3. The Norwegian Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (Finter on Friday) is three points ahead of the Swiss Beat Feuz, Matthias Mayer remains third, 28 points behind. A total of seven men still have chances of the small ball.
It got really warm in the heart at minus ten degrees on a Norwegian winter day out of a picture book for a Swiss: Niels Hintermann, 2017 winner of the Lauberhorn combination in Wengen, celebrated his second success in the World Cup. This is remarkable, as the 26-year-old has often been mocked as a lowlander, since Hausen am Albis in the Zurich Unterland is not high in the Alps.
In addition, Hintermann has already suffered from a number of serious injuries and had to skip the 2017/18 season completely. In the current winter, however, he has long been part of the world elite, having already finished third in Val Gardena and Bormio.
“When I won the Lauberhorn in 2017, external factors were extremely helpful, Mother Holle helped so much that it was enough to win. But I wasn’t physically or technically close enough to pull something like this off the ground. After that, I had a few years of headaches and last season was another low point,” said the 1.90 meter giant. “But I’ve had a good start this winter, and that’s extremely nice now.” His “scream of redemption” (behind man) at the finish line was correspondingly different.