[ad_1]
In 2017, Alpine skiing star Mikaela Shiffrin was beaten in Slovakia by Petra Vlhova. After that, the United States took the advantage but won seven of the other eight special slaloms and their fifth sovereign crystal ball. Austrian riders hope to have a good start to the season on Saturday in Finland and get closer to the queen of fallows.
12:28 pm, November 16, 2018
Winner of the World Cup, Shiffrin, who comes directly from the American training, begins in late fall to the third victory of Levi after 2013 and 2016. The first competitors are Vlhova, the Swiss Wendy Holdener and the Swedish Olympic champion Frida Hansdotter – they were also among the top four in the race north of the Arctic Circle – but at that time the winter conditions were harsh and the cold freezing cold. This year, however, the slope on the Levitunturi has been prepared with old snow from the deposits. It is only thanks to the culture on snow that the races can be crowned.
The ladies of the ÖSV since Nicole Hosp on November 30, 2014 in Aspen without a victory at the World Cup slalom. And the experience on Levi's very special track with waves, flat pieces, a steep pbadage and two difficult transitions leaves little hope that this series ends Saturday (10:15 / 1:15, ORF live) . As the last runner of the ÖSV, Kathrin Zettel was third in 2014 on the Levi podium.
The young Austrian team – not one has won a World Cup so far, Bernadette Schild is the only one to get on the podium – but she is waiting for the new season with a good condition: with shield, Katharina Gallhuber, Katharina Linksberger and the Katharina troupe are relevant for the starting number. List (WCSL) to find a foursome in the top 15.
Schild, fifth in the discipline last winter, wants to get on the podium throughout the season, but for Levi, of course, she does not have any illusions. "I think I already agreed that I would not win anymore, but the goal is of course to progress," said the Salzburg athlete, who was only 17th out of seven races (2010).
If Schild is a specialist in steep terrain, the Olympic bronze medalist Gallhuber has his qualities in the apartment. "Until then, I've never mastered Levi well, I've never been able to play my strength in the apartment, I want to change this this year," she sees herself. . But she also does a lot of video studies and examines how a Shiffrin handles waves and transitions.
Asked about comparisons in training, the Austrians are currently pushing the ball from one colleague to another. Linksberger's colleague "brutally trains" him during training, Gallhuber said. "I'm already here, but I do not run our team on the steep slope, I have to leave skiing even more."
Linksberger does not want to overestimate the results of the training. "We have always had someone else in front of me, I am well prepared and I am now concentrating on the race.The exciting thing is that no one really knows where he is going. before the first race, "said 21 Vorarlberger, a year. For them, it will be the second race Levi, 31 having missed the qualification for the second round last year.
The troop has returned to laxity and the momentum of summer. A season rather "a step back", and the non-nomination at the Olympics had added to Carinthia. "Last year, I had too confused mind, I started to think that it was just a fight in the end and I was happy that the season is over. " After the resignation of Carmen Thalmann, Katharina Huber, the fourth "Kathi" of the slalom team, is his new roommate. "We've been training a lot this summer, she's going to Faak, me to Rif."
In Levi, the troop wants to write differently from a year ago with a result. "I can not slow down, because it will be difficult with the first 30. But I must also drive something with brains, because last year, I flew in the steep slope, it had not been meaningless. " The performances of the teams at the training agree positively. "We are doing well, we are a powerful group, Galli is very fast in the flat, the" Berni "are on the slopes, they always alternate in the training, which is the fastest, which makes exciting things. "
"Tense" is also 22 years old when Shiffrin appeared. Troupe: "In Soelden, it was not a hundred percent Shiffrin, it would be cool if we had gone one step further, we'll see it on Saturday."
ÖSV Women's Team for the Levi Slalom World Cup: Michaela Dygruber, Katharina Gallhuber, Franziska Gritsch, Katharina Huber, Hannah Köck, Katharina Linksberger, Bernadette Schild, Marie-Thérèse Sporer, Katharina Troupe
Source link