2024-01-29 11:37:32
On the route last used by the men, the snow cover is no longer sufficient to ensure the safety of the athletes, the International Ski Federation (FIS) announced on Monday. At the same time, the men would also have been in action in Chamonix, where both planned runs were canceled due to the snow conditions. The slalom on Sunday is still on the program.
The organizers no longer saw any chance of preparing a safe slope for the women’s downhill, for which training runs must also be possible, and the Super-G in Garmisch. “The weather is not cooperating. It’s getting too warm, we can’t produce any new snow,” said OK boss Martina Betz to the “Garmisch-Partenkirchner Tagblatt”. Until recently, the organizers had hoped for lower temperatures, especially at night. However, the meteorologists then changed their forecasts, which ultimately led to the cancellation. “We don’t do it with a crowbar only to have to cancel in the end,” said Betz.
Cortina races raise many questions
Meanwhile, the debate about the causes of the “orgy of falls” in Cortina is ongoing, but opinions differ widely. Were the three days of racing in the Italian Dolomites the accidental climax of an “epidemic season”, the result of a lack of freshness or an unusually tough patch in the women’s World Cup? “For me it’s a big question mark why so many falls happened,” wondered ÖSV downhill skier Mirjam Puchner and she wasn’t alone.
There were some assumptions. For example, there was rampant uncertainty after two of the very best joined the recently rapidly growing accident list on Friday after just one training session. For the Swiss downhill Olympic champion Corinne Suter, the season is over prematurely after a cruciate ligament tear. US superstar Mikaela Shiffrin also limped to the rescue helicopter with her face contorted in pain, but got off relatively lightly with an inner ligament injury. Did the falls of the exceptional athletes have an impact that penetrated deeply into the psyche of their colleagues?
Shiffrin claimed to have experienced “some scary moments” during training. Norwegian Kajsa Vickhoff Lie, who often ranks second only to Italy’s Sofia Goggia when it comes to risk, said Cortina was “more dangerous” than usual this year. But even this finding was divided. The Austrians, for example, didn’t notice any larger teeth on the Olimpia delle Tofane slope, or at least they didn’t say anything about it publicly.
“Full attack with a certain dosage”
However, the support team around head coach Roland Assinger recognized early on that moderation could also be the trump card over the waves this weekend. Stephanie Venier, who is currently in top form, outlined her route as a “full attack with a certain dosage”. This led to her second World Cup victory as well as fifth and second place.
Puchner said: “You can’t drive away without thinking. Downhill sport sometimes means driving with your head.” Even Cornelia Hütter, who used to be called “full-throttle Conny,” decided on a plan that was unusual for her: “I wanted to ski a few sections tactically.”
Lack of mental freshness?
Lara Gut-Behrami admitted after her Sunday victory in the Super-G: “I just didn’t want to risk anything. I didn’t ski as tight a radius as I usually do.” Skiing is easy if you don’t worry too much. “But that was difficult in the last three days because skiing wasn’t really the focus anymore.” After strenuous days, she knew “that my head wasn’t that fresh,” said the Swiss. “I think that also explains the many falls. If your legs and mind aren’t completely fresh, it won’t take much for you to end up in the net.”
This fits with the findings that Shiffrin had made before her fall. “January always feels long, especially in the years without the Olympic Games or World Cup,” said the World Cup record winner. Some are traveling non-stop in the busy first month of the year. “It can be difficult to keep the momentum and energy up.”
It should be noted that Gut-Behrami and Shiffrin are among the most frequent riders in the World Cup. Gut-Behrami will compete in a giant slalom on Kronplatz on Tuesday. On a small scale, keeping the focus high in Cortina was something that runners with higher numbers had to master. First aid measures and clean-up work after falls, and on Saturday gusts of wind made the racing days very long, especially for inexperienced runners.
Jump training could be helpful
Some accidents could be attributed to inadequate posture before larger waves and jumps. In this regard, Felix Neureuther argued that jump training was generally neglected. ÖSV coach Assinger accepted the German ex-ski star’s point. “You can definitely start there and practice it more.”
The question of practical implementation remains. “You can’t do jumps like that on a normal slope. Every tourist goes down there,” said Hütter. She recalled the general problem in the speed industry of finding suitable training locations. “We need two kilometers of slopes, the entire width. If we really want to train, we can’t just close part of the slope and be gone again at 9 a.m. There is no permanent downhill training route for professionals in Austria.
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