Although only Norway (9) has won more medals than Austria (7), the successes are not reflected in the ranking.
Since the 1987 World Championships in Crans-Montana, Austria has always won at least one gold medal in major events. Sometimes it was Karin Buder (1993/Morioka), sometimes it was Patrick Ortlieb (1996/Sierra Nevada), then Renate Götschl (1997/Sestriere), most recently it was alpine legend Marcel Hirscher, who in 2019 in Aare in the last push in the slalom brought salvation.
In 2023 it remained at three silver and four bronze medals. Nina Ortlieb came closest to winning gold, four hundredths behind downhill world champion Jasmine Flury from Switzerland. Marco Schwarz was missing in the combination 10/100 on local hero Alexis Pinturault. In the parallel competition, Dominik Raschner only lost in the final.
Stadlober not dissatisfied
ÖSV President Roswitha Stadlober had previously rated the yield as somewhat positive. “We count Americans, so the number of medals,” said Stadlober on the eve of the men’s slalom with a wink. “We have a few, but of course gold is missing.”
It was frustrating that Manuel Feller was unable to convert his half-time lead in the final slalom. At the same time, however, Stadlober said: “It’s not a disappointment. We weren’t lucky, you have to say that, I don’t want to sugarcoat anything.” We are generally aware of the deficits and will work on them. “We’ll leave the bad things there, we’ll take the good things with us and then we’ll see what’s next,” said Stadlober.
“Of course it’s always nice when you take home a world championship title for Austria, but overall we have seven medals, that’s not bad either,” said Schwarz. “It’s not a request concert, it’s tough business and almost everyone has the same opportunities.”
