Blessed are those who have such weaknesses. The wild Streif piste in Kitzbühel, ski racer Aleksander Aamodt Kilde said recently, is “a little bit my Achilles’ heel”. That’s surprising at first, the Norwegian was a member of the all-or-nothing ultras for a long time; one who, as Kilde once joked, made his rides look difficult even when the terrain was easy to ride. At second glance, that sounds right: Kitzbühel rewards less the breaknecks who do something special on a difficult downhill run, but rather those who do the simple things particularly well. And now?
The Streif didn’t put on their Sunday clothes this time (which isn’t appropriate on a Friday either); Clouds and snow nestled closer to the Hahnenkamm than many would have liked. Where: The Streif in glorious weather, whether with 50,000 spectators or 1,000 like on Friday, that is sometimes almost too cheesy, about as digestible as a packet of sweets at once. This time it needed a man for the demanding, and the fact that it again came down to the 29-year-old from Baerum, for the sixth time this winter and the first time in Kitzbühel, also announced something bigger: the ability to grow and a special understanding of this exhausting individual sport that goes far beyond the luck of a day’s competition.
The organizers were also sweating heavily in their discomfort until Friday. Helpers had been shoveling fresh snow off the slopes for days, starting at 2 a.m. on Friday night, but in the end the feared news never came. They only had to shorten the track by two curves. The drivers didn’t jump into the mousetrap, but pushed themselves in, anything else would have been too dangerous in the gusty wind. But Kilde, who had already set the fastest time in training over the full distance, wasn’t at a disadvantage even on this gray morning.
Norway’s alpine skiers often train in bad weather, they need good feet, as they say, because they have to feel the slope all the better when visibility is poor. On Friday, Kilde proved that he completed his training with top marks, especially on the steep slope: there he pushed away the rough waves as if they didn’t even exist for him, and on the exit, where the centrifugal forces almost drove most riders into the safety net, he still had the strength to run his skis almost uphill, over the crest, over which he bounced as casually as if he were jumping off a three-meter board. The momentum he took with him was like provisions from which he lived until the finish.
The turning point came in 2020: Kilde won the overall World Cup
Not that that surprised the bookmakers: Kilde had already been noticed as a gifted person years ago. In 2016 he won the World Cup classification in the Super-G, which demands a harmonious taste for exhausting cornering and high speed. But Kilde often spiced up his rides with a pinch of too much risk, until two years ago he only won three races in the World Cup. The 2019/20 winter brought the turning point, at that time he even surpassed the big favorite Alexis Pinturault in the overall World Cup. When Kilde tore his cruciate ligament shortly afterwards, he also saw that as an opportunity to start “from scratch”, as he recently said: he had built up “the smallest structures” in his injured knee and could feel his body even better. He’s already plowing down the slopes with the grace of a young bull, while at the same time keeping his skis on the move so delicately it’s as if he were juggling ten balls.
And then there is this aspect again, which puts his success in an even more special light: Kilde also comes from the school of exchange that his predecessors Lasse Kjus and Aksel Lund Svindal once established in the Norwegian association. Svindal recently recounted how he got into the World Cup team, and after the first dinner with the then leaders Kjus and Kjetil André Aamodt, he immediately had the feeling: “These are my best friends.” He wanted to pass on “at least ten percent” of this culture, he saw this as the greatest opportunity to make the country’s few alpine talents fit for the top of the world in the long term: “If I only trust a young driver 99 percent at the beginning”, As is often the case, “then it’s almost as if I trust him zero percent,” said Svindal. Because the youngsters then ask themselves why the remaining one percent is being withheld from them.
“A real Viking,” says German downhill skier Andreas Sander
Kilde, say his trainers today, is seamlessly continuing this culture; also the gift of being fully there when it counts in the big races. This is all the more important because Kjetil Jansrud, the 2019 downhill world champion, after tearing a cruciate ligament in Beaver Creek, it is questionable whether he will ever find his way back into the sport. Otherwise, the Norwegians only sent 26-year-old Henrik Roea into the race on Friday, who did not reach the finish line.
On the other hand, whoever triumphs on the Streif (“One of the biggest races I can win”, says Kilde), can also afford a gap behind. In the overall World Cup, the Swiss Marco Odermatt, who finished fourth on Friday, is probably too strong this winter, also because Kilde (still) does not compete in the giant slalom after his injury. But if the Norwegian stays healthy, it will be tough for the competition, with the upcoming Winter Games and in general. Kilde, said the German Andreas Sander recently, “drives so brutally, he doesn’t know anything about the race”. On Friday, this was particularly evident in the new chicane between Hausberg and Traverse, which was supposed to slow down the drivers after the falls of previous years (with moderate success). Kilde almost touched the ground with his buttocks while he pressed his skis into the ice to still squeeze around the corner. Where brute force makes sense, or in Sander’s words: “A real Viking.”
Sander, who was second in the downhill world championships a year ago, didn’t really crawl out of his slump on Friday either when he was 23rd. Dominik Schwaiger, once again the best German, wasn’t satisfied with 14th place either. And Romed Baumann, probably the fastest DSV driver of the day, had the bad luck that he played the snow plow with start number two. They all promised to do better on Sunday, on the second descent – if it comes to that, with the snow masses forecast. Sounds like Viking weather again.