Ski World Cup: Alpine Ski World Cup: Switzerland is the thorn in the Austrian soul

The Austrians threaten to lose their supremacy in alpine sports to Switzerland. That startled them and gave the duel of the giants new momentum

The eternal duel between the two great skiing powers
Switzerland and
Austria also shaped the World Cup in Cortina d’Ampezzo. This time it draws its tension from the minimalism of the Austrians. By self-definition, they are the measure of all things when it comes to going down a mountain on skis. The Swiss, however, have been scratching this halo of red-white-red invincibility for some time. The World Cup nations ranking has proven to be a deep thorn in the national self-image. For decades no one was interested in this rating, because the Austrians dominated it as a matter of course for 31 years.

Last winter, the Swiss took the lead

But then, last winter, the Swiss took the lead. And suddenly it was an issue. Especially in Austria. In an interview that the Swiss daily newspaper NZZ on the sidelines of the World Cup with the almighty ÖSV President Peter Schröcksnadel, the colleagues used this fact to begin the conversation sensitively. What happened then, they asked with a view to the changing of the guard.

One can well imagine how Schröcksnadel had to swallow the rising bile again before he started to answer. “We were unlucky too,” he said then. “We have a good women’s team, but we have a lot of injuries. Schmidhofer injured, Hütter, Ortlieb. We are missing your points. There is nothing you can do about it. We would actually be very strong, but with all the injuries we are not very good this year, unfortunately that is a fact. ”Of course, the question came as to whether the Austrian team was actually the stronger one. Answer: “We would at least be as strong as the Swiss, I’m very sure of that.”

The Germans are far from intervening in the duel between the giants

It is exciting to watch this rivalry from a distance, because the Germans are far from being able to intervene in the duel between the giants. With three silver and one bronze medal so far, the DSV is doing well. At the top of the medal table, of course, are Austria and Switzerland. What is impressive is the efficiency with which the Austrians have acted so far.

They have won five medals so far, four with a golden shine. Vincent Kriechmayr (2), Marco Schwarz and Katharina Liensberger are the newly crowned world champions. All four had leased one hundredth of luck for themselves – twice to the disadvantage of German drivers.

A measly twelve hundredths lead was enough for the Austrians to win four titles

In the Super-G, Kriechmayr was 0.07 seconds ahead of Romed Baumann, in the downhill it was just 0.01 seconds over Andreas Sander. Black won the combination 0.04 seconds ahead of Alexis Pinturault. And at the same time Liensberger was in the final of the parallel race with Marta Bassino. All in all, a measly twelve hundredths was enough for the Austrians for four titles. It doesn’t matter that the Swiss have won almost twice as many medals – just too few gold medals to be at the top of the medal table.

The omens for the last three World Cup decisions are clear. Some want to defend the lead in the classification, others want to pass. The Austrian-Swiss permanent duel has lost none of its explosiveness, even if it will soon lose its most prominent face with Schröcksnadel.

ÖSV President Schröcksnadel seems to have fallen out of time

The 79-year-old is leaving the office of ÖSV President. It is high time, some say, because the man seems to have fallen out of time. He casually brushes threats like climate change off the table. He doesn’t believe in scare tactics, which could also be due to the fact that he is involved in several ski areas. In the past 50 years, the average snow depth has not decreased and the winters have not become warmer on average.

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“Only the summers have become warmer,” he said NZZ. And: “To be honest, I don’t think much of forecasts for the next 50 years. Often they can’t even predict the weather for three days. ”At the ÖSV they may not be too unhappy that Schröcksnadel is going. Especially since its long-standing opposite pole on the Swiss side is also leaving office.

Urs Lehmann has been President of the Swiss Ski Association since 2008, and now he wants to head the World FIS Association. So soon there will be new players in the old duel between the two great skiing powers.

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