Justified pure joy: Justin Murisier after his first World Cup victory
Image: Keystone
The successful Swiss duo: Marco Odermatt (left) and Justin Murisier
Image: Keystone
The obligatory picture in Beaver Creek with an eagle: Justin Murisier (center), flanked by Marco Odermatt (left) and Miha Hrobat
Image: Keystone
The Swiss delegation has plenty of reason to celebrate right after the first World Cup downhill of the winter
Image: Keystone
Justin Murisier on his way to his first World Cup victory
Image: Keystone
Marco Odermatt can live very well with second place behind his buddy
Image: Keystone
Justified pure joy: Justin Murisier after his first World Cup victory
Image: Keystone
The successful Swiss duo: Marco Odermatt (left) and Justin Murisier
Image: Keystone
The obligatory picture in Beaver Creek with an eagle: Justin Murisier (center), flanked by Marco Odermatt (left) and Miha Hrobat
Image: Keystone
The Swiss delegation has plenty of reason to celebrate right after the first World Cup downhill of the winter
Image: Keystone
Justin Murisier on his way to his first World Cup victory
Image: Keystone
Marco Odermatt can live very well with second place behind his buddy
Image: Keystone
Justin Murisier pulls off the big coup in the first World Cup downhill of the winter. The man from Valais wins in Beaver Creek, Colorado, ahead of his buddy Marco Odermatt. The premiere victory makes up for a lot.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- Justin Murisier wins a World Cup downhill in Beaver Creek for the first time in his career.
- After the race, the 32-year-old, who has endured a long ordeal including three cruciate ligament ruptures, has tears in his eyes.
- Team-mate Marco Odermatt is also happy for Murisier.
In the second half of last season, downhill racing was primarily a duel between Odermatt and Cyprien Sarrazin. There was a duel this time too, albeit an internal one, which Murisier won against Odermatt by two tenths of a second.
"It's difficult to keep my emotions under control right now," said Murisier with tears in his eyes in the finish area of the Birds of Prey piste. "It's just beautiful, even more beautiful than I could have imagined."
Odermatt would of course have loved to have lived up to his role as favorite. "But if I'm going to come second, then behind a colleague, someone like Justin, who more than deserves this success after his incredible story of suffering."
The thick medical file
Murisier's victory was won by someone who has had to get to know the darker side of his profession well enough, who has mostly moved in the shadow of others, whose medical record is much thicker than his record of sporting success, which includes one podium place in the World Cup to date. Four years ago, he came third in the giant slalom in Alta Badia.
"It's incredible. It was worth waiting, being in pain and always fighting on," beams Murisier after his victory in an interview with SRF. "A week ago in Copper, I was still so slow, I thought I could stop skiing."
Bad luck had run its course thirteen years ago in September - with the first of three cruciate ligament ruptures in his right knee as the worst of many painful experiences. It happened while playing football during a get-together in Zermatt. The second low blow was not long in coming. Eleven months later, Murisier was out of action again with the same injury after an incident during preparation in Ushuaia in the south of Argentina. He was banned from the race tracks for two consecutive seasons as a result. And finally, six years ago, the injury witch struck again in the same place at the training camp in Ohau, New Zealand.
Murisier's right knee also kept him busy last June. The three cruciate ligament tears had caused bone outgrowths that required an arthroscopy. The operation in turn meant that the man from Valais was unable to gain the necessary momentum for the new season in Ushuaia and Portillo in Chile. He was unable to complete a single run without pain, Murisier said.
And even in the immediate run-up to Friday's downhill, Murisier had his moment of shock. During the first training session, he dislocated his left shoulder, which fortunately straightened itself out. These problems are nothing new either, reported the long-suffering skier.
The well-deserved reward
And now this - this day, his day, which Murisier had wanted so much and which he had earned like no other. This victory stands for reward, for perseverance, a never-ending fighting spirit, a belief in his own abilities that never wanes even after setbacks - and the constant hope of a turnaround for the better.
Murisier has finally got to where he would probably have been long before without his many ailments. At the beginning of his career, it seemed only a matter of time before his breakthrough, his march to the top. At that age, the highly gifted skier was further along in his development than Marcel Hirscher or Alexis Pinturault, for example. The Frenchman once recalled how they would have looked up to the Valaisan back then.
On this special day in Beaver Creek, it wasn't just the Austrian, who is recovering from a cruciate ligament rupture, and Pinturault, who will probably only return to the slopes this weekend in the giant slalom after recovering from a torn cruciate ligament, who looked up to Murisier.
For the first time, the big stage belonged to him, who had to be almost 33 years old to finally be able to savor this feeling. It will not be the last time. Murisier seems ready - also for more duels with his buddy Odermatt.
