Alpine skiing
Shortly before Kitzbühel: New worries about skiing hope Dreßen
Thomas Dreßen won on the legendary Streif in Kitzbühel in 2018. photo
© Jean-Christophe Bott/KEYSTONE/dpa
Thomas Dreßen is in pain – again. Germany’s top downhill skier becomes emotional after his 42nd place in Wengen. The former Streif winner is critical of the racing calendar.
He felt “shitty,” said Dreßen after the famous Lauberhorn descent in Wengen, in which he only finished 42nd. “It’s just bitter when your body just doesn’t cooperate anymore,” the 30-year-old explained to BR and fought back tears. He tries everything. But: “It just hurts.”
Dreßen had already lost a lot of time in the upper section of the longest World Cup downhill course and then slowed down. At the finish he was more than eleven seconds behind the Swiss winner Marco Odermatt.
Multiple operations on knee and hip
“If you drive into a curve and more or less don’t feel your haunches, it just sucks,” said Dreßen. While driving, he noticed that his knee was giving way. The five-time World Cup winner, who won on the legendary Streif in Kitzbühel in 2018, has had years full of health setbacks – including several operations on his knee and hip.
The legendary Hahnenkamm races are coming up next weekend. Just like in Wengen, there are two runs planned in Kitzbühel. “I think that in general you have to think about what is still useful,” said Dreßen about the packed World Cup calendar and the enormous strain on the athletes. In the first few years of his career, he “didn’t necessarily have the feeling that we didn’t have enough races. The opposite is the case.” In his opinion, classics would also be devalued by the double events.