home advantage? The Swiss bobsledders always shake their heads when asked. Because in the Bob that’s a thing. St. Moritz is a natural ice rink, so use is limited to the really cold months. In contrast, for example, to the ice canals in Germany, where the locals, even from junior days, have hundreds more rides than the competition, the Swiss have very few opportunities for additional training.
For the World Cup, however, this is a bit different. The Swiss got themselves an additional training week by forgoing the penultimate World Cup in Altenberg. In this way, they were able to more than compensate for the missed practice runs that fell victim to the high temperatures between Christmas and New Year.
Michael Vogt and Melanie Hasler have another “home advantage”. The 24-year-old from Aargau and the one year older Schwyzer are tackling their first major event as lovers. Like Roger Federer and Mirka Vavrinec, the two best Swiss bobsleigh pilots at the Olympic Games (in February in China) fell in love. No wonder they are beaming in St. Moritz.
Because sport is also excellent. At the weekend in Altenberg, Vogt got silver at the European Championships with the two and bronze with the four, Hasler got bronze in the two despite a bad cold. It didn’t even matter that they missed the first weekend and a few training rides in the Ore Mountains. On the contrary: “If I ride on a track for too long, I start to do stupid things,” explains Melanie Hasler – and Vogt nods next door with a smile. In this respect, the preparation with a week of training in St. Moritz and the competition in Germany was ideal for clearing my head and gaining self-confidence.
The material also seems to fit, and the training in this area was also extremely valuable. The ambitions are correspondingly clear. Ten years ago Beat Hefti/Thomas Lamparter won a silver medal in the Engadin. “That’s the goal this time, too,” emphasizes Roger Clavadetscher, Managing Director of the Swiss association Swiss-Sliding. That’s definitely a realistic goal.
Michael Vogt sees his better chance on the first weekend in a pair with Sandro Michel. In four of their five World Cup appearances, the two stood on the podium, in the foursome this was only possible last weekend. As always, the main opponents are the Germans with their always outstanding material, plus the Briton Brad Hall, with his first three World Cup victories and the European Championship title of the year’s climber. After the retirement of the Canadian Olympic champion Justin Kripps and the back operation on the Latvian Oskars Kibermanis, the peak has become narrower.
This also applies to women. The German riders and the three-time Olympic champion Kaillie Humphries from the USA dominated. Melanie Haslers got her two podium finishes in twos, so her hopes are more on the second weekend. The women start on Saturday and Sunday with the monobob, in which Hasler does not feel quite so comfortable, and in which the illness-related weakening had a greater impact at the weekend. On Thursday, however, she was convinced that she would be completely fit again.
Martina Fontanive from Zurich, who was injured at the beginning of the season, will be the second Swiss to start in both women’s races. In the men’s category, the drivers from Swiss-Sliding took third place on the grid. Simon Friedli, who has also recovered from an injury, is contesting both competitions, Timo Rohner is only in action in the twos, Engadin native Cédric Follador only in the fours.
But Melanie Hasler and Michael Vogt will have to take care of the medals. They would love to have both medals attached to each other, like they did last weekend. Privately, they also reveal that with a laugh, bobsledding is rarely a topic of conversation.
(sda)
