Austria's men are only in 4th place in the national rankings. It's a slap in the face for the proud skiing nation - former skiing greats are bleeding from the heart.
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- While the Austrians are busy scoring points - only the Swiss are better - the Austrians are not getting up to speed at all. They are only in 4th place in the nations ranking.
- In the four speed races so far, only one Austrian (3rd place) has made it onto the podium. In comparison: Marco Odermatt's worst result in these races is a 3rd place.
- Things don't look much better in the giant slalom and slalom, where the Austrians are also missing an Odermatt and a Loïc Meillard respectively.
- No wonder the ski experts are sounding the alarm. One of them, Hans Knauss, believes he has a miracle cure to combat the crisis: "The guys would probably loosen up if they got really drunk again!" Well then, cheers!
In Beaver Creek, 23-year-old Lukas Feuerstein races to the podium in the super-G. He comes third behind Marco Odermatt and Cyprien Sarrazin. The second best Austrian in this race is Vincent Kriechmayr, who finishes 6th, two hundredths ahead of Gino Caviezel. With Daniel Danklmaier (9th), a third Austrian even makes it into the top 10. So things don't look that bleak in this race, but Feuerstein's podium finish is the only one for Austria in the speed disciplines so far.
Switzerland, the number 1 in the national rankings, is in a much better position. Justin Murisier won the downhill in Beaver Creek ahead of Marco Odermatt and Odermatt won in Val Gardena/Gröden ahead of Franjo von Allmen. Odermatt also wins the super-G in Beaver Creek. Only the super-G in Val Gardena/Gröden is not won by a Swiss: the winner there is Mattia Casse, followed by the US American Jarded Goldberg and, how could it be otherwise, Marco Odermatt. The superstar has therefore achieved four times as many podium places as all the Austrians put together. And three times he was even better than third.
A runaway winner in the giant slalom
In the technical disciplines of slalom and giant slalom, things don't look much better for our neighbors. In the giant slalom in Val-d'Isère, two Austrians, Patrick Feuerstein and Stefan Brennsteiner, finished behind winner Odermatt, but that was it for podium places. In the three other giant slaloms of the season so far there has been a Norwegian triple victory, a triumph by Thomas Tumler and most recently in Alta Badia, as before in Val-d'Isère, victory for Odermatt, who was eliminated in the first two giant slaloms of the season.
Odermatt is not involved in the slalom, but Switzerland has Loïc Meillard there. Despite back problems, the 28-year-old has raced to the podium in three of the four races so far. Meillard finishes 3rd, 5th, 3rd and 2nd in order. The best Austrian in each of these races comes 15th, 9th, 4th and 7th. Ouch!
The criticism of the former ski cracks from Austria
And so it comes as no surprise that the experts and former ski greats in Austria are sounding the alarm. Armin Assinger says that "the flags are flying at half-mast here". Downhill legend Franz Klammer is annoyed that training is taking place in groups that are too small and that team spirit is falling by the wayside as a result. Klammer almost turns pale with envy when he looks across the border: "You Swiss are currently demonstrating in an impressive way that skiing is also a team sport. Odermatt is an outstanding team player who inspires the young racers."
ORF expert Hans Knauss, downhill winner on the Streiff in Kitzbühel in 1999, sees it exactly the same way: "I agree with Franz Klammer 100 percent, especially our World Cup downhill training group is far too small. We also make the mistake of using talented speed skiers in the European Cup for far too long. This is useless because the downhill slopes at this level are often like highways. That's why it's important that the young guys are introduced to the technically difficult slopes in the World Cup as quickly as possible."
Wise advice?
Knauss cites other reasons and believes that the necessary looseness is currently falling by the wayside. And how can this be corrected quickly? "The lads would probably loosen up if they got really drunk again! At the beginning of the 1998/99 season, I also had a phase where nothing at all fit together. During the Christmas break, I drank so much beer at an après-ski party that I saw the Christ Child twice. After that, I went to Bormio, where I only just missed out on the podium in the downhill in fourth place."
Would a collective booze-up really give the Austrians wings? At least questionable. But at least the badly shaken Austrians could simply drink away their bad results.
Incidentally, the next chance to do better than in the previous races is this coming weekend in Bormio. A downhill is on the program on Saturday and a super-G on Sunday.
But is the crisis really that bad or are the Austrians making much ado about nothing? A look in the rear-view mirror clearly shows that we should expect more than what has been on offer so far. Between 1989 and 2019, the Austrians won the Nations Cup without interruption. In order to get there again, they would probably have to go through the whole year - and even then it would probably be a tight race ... Patrick Feurstein is the best Austrian in the overall World Cup, currently ranked 18th.
