A daring slice of pizza helped ski racer Vincent Kriechmayr to his first World Cup success since March. What is meant in the ski scene is the V-shaped position of the skis – called pizza cuts – through which the Austrian caught a curve perfectly at the Downhill World Cup in Wengen and raced to his controversial victory. The 30-year-old won on Saturday, 0.34 seconds ahead of Beat Feuz from Switzerland. Third was the Italian Dominik Paris (+0.44).
Kriechmayr’s start had caused quite a stir due to the special starting right granted to him by the World Federation Fis. The world champion had missed the downhill training as a result of a positive corona test. According to the regulations, however, participation in at least one training session is mandatory for the start in the downhill run. After being given the green light by a jury decision, Kriechmayr drove out of the starting gate on Friday morning. After a few meters he broke off the journey.
“It’s not at all about Vincent Kriechmayr, it’s about the regulations that are there so that everyone knows what they have to do,” said the Alpine Director of the Swiss Ski Association, Walter Reusser, ZDF. Second-placed Feuz congratulated him on Saturday with a wink: “Considering that you didn’t do any training, it was a very good run.”
After their debacle the day before, the German speed men had to put up with the next setback and all missed out on the top 15. Dominik Schwaiger was the best DSV athlete in 17th place. Romed Baumann landed two positions behind. “I lacked 100 percent conviction. The further it went down, the more sluggish it became,” Baumann said on ZDF, looking at the longest descent on the World Cup calendar.
Simon Jocher and Josef Ferstl did not get past places 24 and 30. The World Cup runner-up Andreas Sander had already reacted to his form crisis before the race and decided not to start. On Sunday there is still a slalom on the program in Switzerland.