VIENNA — Switzerland 11, Austria 0.
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The distinction between the 2 rival powerhouses of ski racing might hardly be larger heading into the Alpine world championships in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, which begin Tuesday.
The lads’s crew of host nation Austria has did not win any of the 25 races to this point this World Cup season.
The Swiss males, although, have celebrated 11 victories and added 14 extra podium outcomes.
After all, they’ve serial winner Marco Odermatt. The Olympic big slalom champion has raised his profession tally of World Cup victories to 44 by racking up seven this season – simply as many as the complete Austrian males’s crew has podium outcomes.
Odermatt, the dominator of males’s ski racing for over three seasons now, arrives on the worlds because the downhill and GS titleholder from 2023 and is within the prime of his profession at 27.
However the Swiss crew is a lot extra than simply Odermatt.
It noticed 4 different racers climb onto the highest of a World Cup podium this season, and all have been first-time winners: Justin Murisier and Alexis Monney in downhill, Franjo von Allmen in super-G, and Thomas Tumler in big slalom.
So, Switzerland has a contemporary era of children coming by means of after Odermatt?
Not fairly. Whereas that holds true for the 25-year-old Monney and 23-year-old von Allmen, Murisier at 32 and Tumler at 35 are nicely into their thirties.
And don’t neglect Loic Meillard, the runner-up to Odermatt within the general standings final season. The all-event skier is but to win a race this marketing campaign however had 5 podium outcomes.
When Saalbach-Hinterglemm hosted the World Cup finals final March, Meillard received the GS and positioned second within the super-G, which was received by his Swiss teammate Stefan Rogentin.
All of them blossom in a tightly knit crew of pals, on and off the slopes.
“To live and share all these emotions with good friends is so much more ,” Odermatt wrote on Instagram final week, posting a video and images from celebrations along with his teammates after he received the super-G in Kitzbuehel.
“We certainly have a super team with a lot of talent, and a training staff which always goes all in,” Odermatt stated. “Each success pushes the others on the team. In the end, we all want to be the fastest of the Swiss team. Those dynamics are great.”
Main the downhill, super-G and GS standings once more, after profitable these titles final season, Odermatt is the Swiss males’s important gold medal hope on the worlds.
It’s laborious to single out a racer carrying related expectations inside the Austrian crew, which lacks a standout performer.
Marco Schwarz had that function when he went previous Odermatt to briefly prime the general standings two months into the 2023-24 season. However a extreme knee damage following a downhill crash in Bormio on the course for use on the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics ended the Austrian’s marketing campaign prematurely.
Schwarz returned a yr later, in December 2024, and has been step by step working his manner again, with a sixth place the perfect lead to his 10 begins previous to the worlds.
The closest to a victory for the Austrian crew this season got here when Vincent Kriechmayr completed runner-up within the super-G races in Bormio and Wengen. Nonetheless, he hasn’t raced since hurting his proper knee within the Jan. 18 Lauberhorn downhill.
Kriechmayr received gold in each downhill and super-G on the 2021 worlds in Italy and bronze and silver, respectively, two years earlier in Sweden.
Patrick Feurstein additionally had a second-place end in a large slalom, however Austrian has no top-three lead to downhill to this point.
The identical utilized to slalom as nicely till Manuel Feller, final yr’s self-discipline champion, and Fabio Gstrein lastly made the rostrum in Schladming final week within the ninth and last race earlier than the worlds.
“We are highly motivated, we will finally show what we can do,” stated two-time Olympic champion and slalom silver medalist Johannes Strolz. “The entire team has been undervalued this season. We will do everything we can to have a say at the world championships.”
Whatever the outcomes on the upcoming worlds, Austria will stay forward of Switzerland no less than within the all-time medal depend.
The Austrian males have received 56 gold medals and 165 in complete for the reason that worlds have been first held in 1931. With 35 golds and 113 general, everlasting rival Switzerland faces a spot that even Odermatt and firm can’t shut anytime quickly.
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