The Streif is a myth, only one thing is clear: neither fear of heights nor fear of flying are beneficial. The former ski racer Bode Miller even described the Streif run to Kitzbühel as a “Starfighter”; it felt like you were sitting in a fighter jet. Miller’s parable was apt because very few people know how to fly such a machine. Actually, you have to be some kind of machine yourself, ideally stable, so that you can survive such a flight. And so it happened that the Streif departure found its cyborg in January 2024: a French-designed cyborg named Cyprien Sarrazin.
The film cyborg “Terminator” sat in the main stand of the Kitzbühel ski stadium on Saturday afternoon in a traditional hat with a green brim. It’s a tradition that “Arnie” from the USA comes to the Hahnenkamm race. But what he saw that day through dark glasses in the bright sunlight was new: The 30-year-old Sarrazin turned into the finish slope as if driven by gears, gaining a lead of more than a second over the previous leader of this race. So to the man who more than a few observers would describe as a machine, the Swiss Marco Odermatt. But now came: the cyborg from Kitzbühel.
Cyprien Sarrazin won’t soon forget this weekend.
(Photo: Alexis Boichard/Agence Zoom/Getty Images)
When Sarrazin raced across the finish line with a lead of 91 hundredths of a second, some experienced Streif connoisseurs had a question: Has there ever been a ski racer who, in its 93-year history, had mastered the Streif as powerfully and powerfully as this guy France? The opposite must first be proven.
Sarrazin drove every corner relentlessly, pushing the bumps in the ice track aside with his steel edges, as if he were sliding over cotton balls. On his first jump he stretched his skis to the left like a trick skier, and his second jump took him so far that he almost landed in the Seidlalm. But he turned the skis so that he was heading in the ideal direction on the piste again. Sarrazin moved so closely to the gates throughout the entire journey that one almost had to fear a threader, who usually works in slalom. On the penultimate jump, his skis fell apart as he landed before he turned into the finish slope. Could the brief wobble cost him his lead? Schwarzenegger must have already suspected it under his traditional hat: he will never lose that in his life.
Once at the bottom, Sarrazin tore his skis off his boots, climbed onto the pile of snow behind the advertising board and, with his arms outstretched, let the audience celebrate him, still full of energy. Schwarzenegger, who was accompanied by his son for the first time, sat clapping. And Cyborg Sarrazin soon explained what drives him. One motivation for his speedy journey was the prospect of meeting the “Terminator”. “I wanted a photo with him,” Sarrazin explained. That’s why he “drove with heart like yesterday.” So there he was, after this feat that only very few ski racers manage to achieve, he is now the third Frenchman on the list of winners – twice. “I can’t understand it all,” he said. “It’s crazy, this is definitely the best moment of my life.”
Celebrities of the powerful kind: The actors Arnold Schwarzenegger (left) and Ralf Moeller (right) mingle with the spectators in the finish area.
(Photo: Barbara Gindl/AFP)
This skier has a special biography. Until the beginning of 2022, Sarrazin had almost exclusively competed in the technical disciplines of skiing, i.e. in slalom – and especially in giant slalom, which was his declared special discipline for many years. He has achieved one World Cup victory in all these years, in December 2016 in the parallel giant slalom in Alta Badia (South Tyrol), three years later he came second at the same place, otherwise he was never to be found on the World Cup podium.
Sarrazin might have changed disciplines years ago if this inspiration had struck him earlier: In the 2021/22 World Cup season, his sporting performance had noticeably gone downhill, which not even skiers can approve of. In two thirds of the races he either missed the second run or did not finish. He couldn’t explain any of this – and so he became increasingly preoccupied with thoughts of change. He joined a training group and from then on practiced downhill skiing in South America, among other things. Interim result: He was the fastest in training in his second run. And so the change became more concrete.
His shortcoming as a skier, even in his earlier years in the World Cup, was mostly the dosage of his energy. Sarrazin once told the French newspaper that he was a little absent at certain moments in some races Le Dauphiné. This may also be due to the fact that he didn’t dare to tackle speed disciplines for a long time. According to Sarrazin, he lacked the maturity for that.
At the finish line in Kitzbühel he now felt ready for big gestures, and as such it can be seen that he immediately sprayed his German colleague Thomas Dreßen with champagne. After crossing the finish line, Dreßen had just been paid homage by the stadium to the sounds of his dream song “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC. Like Sarrazin, Dreßen is only 30 years old, but while one star rose, another went out. On Saturday, six years to the day after his downhill victory in Kitzbühel, Dreßen had mastered the Streif for the last time, not particularly quickly, not with all his strength, as planned. It was his departure on and off the big stage after many years of very bad luck with injuries.
Cheers for a special ski racer: Thomas Dreßen receives well-deserved applause after his last descent.
(Photo: Leonhard Foeger/Reuters)
At the finish he was welcomed not only by Sarrazin, but also by his wife Birgit with their daughter Elena, brother Michael and mother Monika, who immediately threw their arms around him after he reached the bottom safely. This scene was “absolutely beautiful, I didn’t expect it at all, it was amazing,” said Dreßen, before thinking of his father, “who unfortunately can’t be there.” Dirk Dreßen died in a cable car accident in Sölden in 2005.
And in the main stand, the man with the green brim was still there. He clapped as he had done for Cyborg Sarrazin, but he was no longer sitting, he had risen from his seat for the human Dreßen. Just like the entire Kitzbühel audience.