Alpine World Ski Championships: Germany loses against Austria in the team event

A small group of very young and very noisy fans in the Méribel finish area had just changed allegiance: still waving their French flags, the battle cries during the team competition final were clearly aimed at the United States of America. There is no doubt that it was not possible to clarify what motives drove the defectors; It was probably due to the Americans’ opponents in the final: the Norwegians. They had the nerve to knock out the hosts’ team in the quarter-finals. In any case, the wishes of the entourage were heard: Norway’s Timon Haugan got tangled up in the last duel at the start, Tommy Ford secured the gold medal for the American.

The quartet of the German Ski Association (DSV) had already left the stadium. It had lost three of the four duels against the Austrians in the quarterfinals, who later lost in the small final to the bronze winners from Canada. But they didn’t sink too deeply into disappointment in the DSV, you could tell by the way sports director Wolfgang Maier tasted his conclusion. Unfortunately, “the kings of the mountains” were not fooled again – Austria had last defeated the Germans at the 2022 Winter Games in the final – but a victory in Méribel “would also be an insult to majesty,” joked Maier. In the end, they were left with the realization that the second week of the World Cup in France began in much the same way as the first had ended: “If everything doesn’t go well,” said Linus Straßer, “it’s just over.”

In this respect, the team format hardly differs from the other World Cup competitions. Not only the DSV, but also the competition came to Meribél with the best of their ability, including associations that had long smiled at the parallel format, like the Americans. “In the end, everyone wants these medals,” said Wolfgang Maier. At first glance, the start lists didn’t give it away – among the men, for example, only one driver from the group of the ten best giant slalom drivers this winter had turned up: DSV athlete Alexander Schmid. On the other hand, the specialists for the classic giant slalom are not necessarily the best in the parallel format, the radii are often shorter there, as are the runs, and they also take place close together. “If you know a bit about the subject,” said Straßer, “you already know that the best are at the start here.”

The Germans had again caught difficult opponents at the beginning. The seeding list is not primarily based on the results the associations have achieved in past team events – in the case of the Germans, second place in Beijing and third place at the 2021 World Championships and at the World Cup final a year ago. The decisive factor is the nation ranking, which collects all World Cup points of an association, so the DSV is in the middle this winter as well. That’s how it went straight away against Sweden, the 2021 World Cup silver winners. Schmid and Straßer in particular started strong, Schmid even with one of the fastest drives in the field. It was 3:1 after four duels.

However, the momentum quickly ebbed. Andrea Filser lost her duel against Julia Scheib in the quarterfinals against Austria, Straßer drove well, but not well enough against Dominik Raschner. “He’s probably one of the top three in the world in this competition,” said Straßer, even though Raschner only really impressively demonstrated that against Straßer. In any case, Schmid and Lena Dürr had to win the remaining two duels and be very quick, because in the event of a tie, the times of the fastest woman and the fastest man are added and compared. Dürr then also won, her time – 23.45 seconds – just wasn’t exactly fast. Schmid, according to Maier “by far the fastest on the mountain”, had to throw all his skills into the run and also be two tenths of a second faster than Stefan Brennsteiner. Schmid managed that for a couple of goals, then it threw him off the course.

The parallel races could already fall out of the program at the upcoming world championships

The disappointment afterwards was also appropriately large. Schmid found it “simply bitter”, Straßer was at least “a bit disappointed”, Dürr was annoyed “that I couldn’t deliver the time that we needed”. Curious: the earlier exit gave them a small presumed advantage for the rest of the day’s program. The world association Fis and the hosts had already scheduled the qualification for the parallel individual races on Tuesday evening – on the other side of the mountain, in Courchevel – which should end on Wednesday afternoon with the final rounds. It was like rushing the athletes into the first run of the slalom in the evening after a giant slalom in the afternoon, or in the words of the German head coach Christian Schwaiger: “Actually completely stupid.”

It fit into the picture that Fis had given with the format in recent years. The parallel team race has already been canceled for the 2026 Winter Games, and the parallel races will probably also be dropped from the program for the upcoming world championships, which became more apparent on Tuesday. Does that match the ratings and mood that accompanied the format in Méribel? The biggest losers of the day, it seemed, were not the defeated teams, but the competition itself.

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