Morale injection for Hemetsberger before the World Cup

Daniel Hemetsberger presented himself in excellent form just in time for the Ski World Championships in Courchevel/Meribel, which begin on February 6th. The 31-year-old from Nußdorf drove in the second Super-G from Cortina d’Ampezzo, where he was “only” a reserve player in the 2021 title fights, to his third podium finish overall in the World Cup. The man from the Salzkammergut had previously finished third in the Kitzbühel downhill run in January 2022 and second in the Lake Louise downhill run in November 2022.

“After a super year in downhill, I wanted to be in the top 20 in the world in Super-G as well. That’s me now. But of course: We are top athletes, I hope that I can improve even more,” said Hemetsberger after his liberation.

In the weeks before, things hadn’t quite gone according to plan for the Upper Austrian, since his fourth place in the Bormio-Super-G on December 29th, things had been a bit wormy. “I’m not consistent enough. That annoys me of course,” said the veteran before the Kitzbühel races.

The pain comes and goes

Eighth place in the second descent on the Hahnenkamm made the pendulum swing back in the right direction. That was even a bit unexpected, especially since Hemetsberger had previously spent significantly more time with his physiotherapists than on the slopes. The injured knees – Hemetsberger already had four cruciate ligament tears – caused problems. The pain comes and goes.

Yesterday there was nothing to see of a possible impairment. The veteran chose an extremely clever line after his failure on Saturday, Hemetsberger mastered that treacherous double goal, which was fatal to numerous athletes, with flying colours. “I’m going to the World Championships very motivated now,” emphasized the speed specialist, who competes in Downhill and Super-G.

The same applies to Vincent Kriechmayr, who is the defending champion in both disciplines. In Cortina – on the site of his two World Championship gold medals – two fifth places jumped out for the 31-year-old Gramastettner. That’s not enough for his high demands.

“That’s cold consolation”

“I wasn’t good enough. The performance in the double goal was catastrophic, it doesn’t work that way. The rest was good, but that’s cold consolation,” said Kriechmayr. Addendum: “He who is the measure of all things has also made it.” The double world champion meant the Swiss Marco Odermatt, who reported back impressively with a double triumph after a meniscus contusion in Kitzbühel.

“It was at the last point, very close to the limit,” said the leader in the overall World Cup, who extended his lead over Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (North/retired) to 313 points.

For Andreas Ploier from Straß im Attergau, despite a 13th place on Saturday (that was his best World Cup result to date), the World Championship train should have left. Stefan Babinsky, Raphael Haaser and Marco Schwarz have better cards. Lukas Feurstein would also be a candidate, but injured his knee yesterday. An exact diagnosis is still pending.