Overall World Cup leader Odermatt won four Super-Gs this season and jumped onto the podium in all of them, with Kilde taking two. Kriechmayr was second once, never worse than ninth and boosted his self-confidence by winning last season’s World Cup final on the World Championship track in Courchevel. Of course, the course setting was different, as was the snow, but the Super-G with its numerous transitions is once more technically demanding.
Kriechmayr’s teammates can also count on medal chances, above all Marco Schwarz, who can drive off freely with a combination silver in his pocket, and Raphael Haaser, who wants to increase his medal portfolio to bronze. The 25-year-old had his only World Cup podium so far two years ago in the Super-G in Bormio. With the second medal at the second start at the World Championships, another dream would come true for Haaser.
“Let’s see what comes out”
The other World Championship debutants Stefan Babinsky and Daniel Hemetsberger, who finished third in Cortina in the last Super-G before the title fights, also set their sights on precious metal. In any case, head coach Marko Pfeifer sees his team in a good position and prepared for medals. “Kriechmayr is of course our leader in the speed area. Haaser now has a medal, he can drive Super-G quickly. We must not forget Hemetsberger either,” said Pfeifer. “You ski well, let’s see what comes out.”
Kriechmayr messed up the Kombi-Super-G. He wants to learn from his mistakes. “I skied really badly and sloppily, I mightn’t get any traction on the skis. It wasn’t what I had planned,” said Kriechmayr. “Now I know what I have to do better in the special Super-G.” The terrain is huge, so the Super-G is technically demanding. “I have to analyze my mistakes, concentrate and just run well,” said the 31-year-old.
However, he started as an outsider, said Kriechmayr, he was stacked low. “Of course I’ll do my best and give it my all, it only counts as one, two or three. But my well-being in the Super-G is currently not the same as it used to be,” said Kriechmayr, who was fourth in the Super-G combination and lost 0.44 seconds to Haaser and 0.52 to Schwarz, who had great ambitions in the Special competition starts.
“Another story”
“It was fun in the station wagon, I tried to drive from top to bottom and I succeeded. The track is difficult because there is a lot of terrain in it,” says Schwarz. His expectations for the special Super-G? “That’s another story, but I like the slope, I like the snow. The material felt great. So it suits me quite well, I think. The track suits me,” says Schwarz. At the twelfth start, the Carinthian is regarding the seventh World Cup medal.
All in all, despite all the doubts in the run-up to the World Cup, the Speed Team is powerful, according to Hemetsberger. “We are well positioned, the speed is right for everyone. I count myself among them,” he said. The Upper Austrian is excited regarding his World Cup debut (“That was my lifelong dream”), especially since he didn’t get a chance as a substitute in Cortina two years ago. “I’ve shown in the last few races that I can drive up front. I’ll throw everything in, attack fully. If everything fits together, great things can happen here.”
