That’s what it’s like when you shoulder the hopes of an entire department: There are one or the other official obligation, and you don’t provoke an injunction if you say that the ski racer Alexander Schmid is not quite firm in these things.
A few days before the start of the season in Sölden, the Bayerischer Rundfunk had asked for a so-called Aufsager; Schmid should speak a sentence into the camera that the audience should see later: “Hello, I’m Alex Schmid, here we go again, keep your fingers crossed for me,” the reporter told him. The first attempt was fine, Schmid only forgot to introduce himself by name. He should change that on the second try: “So that people recognize you too!” That’s the instruction from the director. The second attempt was a bit tight (“Schmid Alex, keep your fingers crossed for me!”), but before the exercise could have slipped into Loriot-like (“In the fall, the Pope will open a men’s boutique with my daughter in Wuppertal”), the TV gave itself -Crew happy.
Playing with the public isn’t exactly his thing, but it’s not a crime. Alexander Schmid from SC Fischen has always let his skiing speak for itself, for many years in homeopathic doses, since last winter in the circle of the best – and this season as a permanent member of just that, if everyone involved in the German Ski Association thinks so (DSV) goes. Alexander Schmid should be Alexander Schmid as often as possible, not an energy-saving version marked by injuries, and the record of this giant slalom in Sölden read very promising. Eighth place with the victory of the Swiss Marco Odermatt, that was Schmid’s best result so far on the glacier ramp, the flat sections of which the 28-year-old still doesn’t really like (the women’s race on Saturday was canceled due to wind and snowfall). Schmid said he was “a little bit proud” of what that Sunday meant to him overall.
Continues where he left off last winter: Overall World Cup winner Marco Odermatt wins the giant slalom in Sölden.
(Photo: Joe Klamar/AFP)
Not quite a year ago, Christian Schwaiger, the head coach of the DSV men, complained that Schmid “simply lacked consistency for years”. Sometimes broken shins and fibulae slowed him down, sometimes an inflamed tendon, sometimes the Epstein-Barr virus. In between, Schmid has repeatedly achieved world-class rankings with his round turns that don’t look fast, but are often more profitable on steep slopes than the brute direct route between two gates. Last winter he was third in Alta Badia on the Gran Risa with its endless waves and steep sections in the shady forest. It was his first visit to a World Cup podium, and it showed that Schmid can spread his skills over two runs. Even if that was still happening too seldom at the time: At the Olympics in Beijing, he fell out of the giant slalom course in the first run, and later he won the silver medal with the team.
In Sölden, some indications could now be gathered that suggested that Schmid could more often present two equal runs in the future. The preparation went almost smoothly, said head coach Schwaiger, Schmid spoke of “30, 35” training days on snow, around three times as many as a year ago. “There will certainly be some aches and pains at some point,” he said, “but at the moment I have everything under control.” That’s another reason why he wanted all the giant slaloms this winter and compete in slaloms; Schmid used to be at least as strong in slalom before injuries forced him to train in giant slalom. “In the last few years I’ve had to hold back a lot, especially with the second discipline,” confirms Schmid in Sölden, “if I can increase my volumes like I can now, things will look very good.” A second discipline, a little distance from what you do best, also clears your head.
Before the start, he also thought of his injured brother, says Schmid
Coincidentally or not, Schmid also seemed mentally more stable in Sölden. In the second run he appeared “a bit more committed” and at the same time “a bit more relaxed”. This mix had not always worked out for him in the past. Before the start, he also thought of his brother Manuel, who just ended up on sick leave after a crash in downhill training. “Then I said briefly: I’m going with you today,” said Alexander Schmid, and then he drove off, “with a grin on his face” – it didn’t matter that a cloud was in front of the sun and him sight of many ruts in the ice.
Otherwise? Had they hoped in the DSV that their colleagues would also be more stable, as well as they had recently prepared. “Everyone actually starts at the highest level of performance,” says Schmid. Inaccurately, it turned out that many an old construction site is the new one for the time being. Stefan Luitz dropped out in the first run when you could tell that the 30-year-old was still missing training kilometers after a back operation. The rest struggled with a decreasing track (Fabian Gratz/40th, Linus Straßer/44th) or with themselves.
For now, Schmid continues to carry hopes, at least in giant slalom. Also as a public relations worker for television.