Scheyer starts at 7:00 a.m. CET with a one-hundredth lead over the Czech Ester Ledecka and 14 hundredths over her compatriot Ramona Siebenhofer, who was third in the downhill. Top favorite Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) leads the squad of technical specialists as fifth only 0.56 behind Scheyer.
In the last individual competition of the alpine ski women, only 26 skiers started. Shiffrin, who was unexpectedly empty at the Olympics in Beijing, had set the best time in the last downhill training session on Wednesday and can have high hopes of ending the previous Olympic disaster with gold. Because in a competition without Vice World Champion Petra Vlhova (SVK), her main competitors Federica Brignone (8th), Wendy Holdener (11th) and defending champion Michelle Gisin (12th) are behind her. In addition, her US coach sets the slalom.
Anger against the slopes
Scheyer showed a strong descent in her first Olympic appearance. “I attacked fully, it was really fun. It was a wilder ride than the last few days, I fought, stayed in position and kept the speed with me.” After missing the qualification for the special descent, she felt at most angry at the slope. Opening a slalom hasn’t happened to her for a long time. “For speeders, the goal must be to get away from the front, otherwise you’ve already messed it up on the downhill. I don’t have any expectations because I don’t know where I stand in the slalom.”
The situation is different for Siebenhofer, who is also a speed specialist with a tendency to be an all-rounder, but definitely has outsider chances of a medal. “A few little things weren’t quite optimal, but it’s not the route that’s tailor-made for me like Cortina. It was definitely my best ride down there today, and the conditions were also very fair,” said the Styrian, who was fourth in the 2019 World Championships, fifth in the 2021 World Championships and seventh at the 2018 Olympics.
Opening the slalom with one would have been cool, but that’s how it fits. “I have a few leads and I know where to go.” Her slalom training was appealing. “I’ve always shown that I can do it too.” The route is very demanding because the target slope is relatively steep, but I think I can keep up on the flat at the top. And a lot can happen, you saw in the special slalom that the favorites have to come down first.”
Katharina Huber, as a specialist, clearly Austria’s strongest slalom skier from the combined Olympic trio, is 19th, 3.26 seconds behind, but probably has no chance. “I can only go all in in slalom. Basically, I’m happy with the descent. I’ve improved by six seconds in three days, which makes me positive. It was a second better than I had planned.”
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Source: Nachrichten
