Alpine skiing
Small German rays of hope in the Sarrazin coup in Kitzbühel
Cyprien Sarrazin won the downhill in Kitzbühel. photo
© Barbara Gindl/APA/dpa
The DSV downhill skiers were recently embarrassed in Bormio and Wengen. Even on the Streif there isn’t enough to get far ahead – but there are glimmers of hope. The shooting star from France remains in top shape.
With the victory of the French shooting star Cyprien Sarrazin ahead of Florian Schieder from South Tyrol (+0.05 seconds) and the Swiss World Cup dominator Marco Odermatt (+0.34), the DSV professionals were of course far away from a podium place. Six years ago, Thomas Dreßen triumphed in the Tyrolean skiing mecca – on Saturday (11.30 a.m./ARD and Eurosport), the Upper Bavarian, who has been marked and worn down by injuries and operations, will end his career on the second Hahnenkamm downhill run. The SC Mittenwald athlete decided not to start on Friday.
Jocher provides a little surprise
As a guest of honor in the starting house, Dreßen was able to look forward to Schwaiger and Jocher’s journeys. Jocher (+1.36) celebrated his third-best downhill result in the World Cup; in Kitzbühel he has never made it this far forward. The 27-year-old was “super happy” after the surprise and spoke of “relief that you can once again gain a foothold up there.”
Now it’s time to “take the drive with you,” said Jocher. “I think and hope that it will help the entire team if Dominik and I step on the gas today.” While he only completed his fourth shot in Kitzbühel, Schwaiger (+1.35) used his experience from a dozen Streif competitions – even though he had only injured his knee in November.
Meanwhile, there was frustration among the teammates. Andreas Sander, for example – who was fifth and sixth three years ago – ended up in a disastrous 48th place, which he wants to “quickly forget”. “It can’t get any worse,” he complained before the second race on Saturday, in which he now wants to compete “with a different, give-it-all mood.” Also the veterans Romed Baumann (37th/+2.32) and Josef Ferstl (40th/+2.60) as well as the young Luis Vogt (39th/+2.44) and Jacob Schramm (50th/3.43 ) missed the points.
Sarrazin celebrates fourth podium finish in a row
The rivals at the top are currently in a different league than the Germans – above all Sarrazin, who celebrated his second downhill victory of the season and his fourth podium finish in a row, as well as Odermatt. “What Odermatt and Sarrazin are doing is somnambulistic,” said Baumann in amazement. “You can wake them up at 3 a.m. and they’ll still drive everything down there by train.”
Dreßen also achieved this in January 2018 when he conquered the Streif. On Saturday, the father of the family says hello on the slopes – the 30-year-old didn’t know whether it would be another ambitious ride or a show run.
His colleagues will miss him, as Sander admitted. “That really hit me emotionally,” he said of the moment when Dreßen told the team about his resignation. “We’ll see how it feels without him. He’ll definitely leave a bigger gap that we’ll try to close.”