Feller had no chance as a snow plow

PALISADES TAHOE. There was an overtime in Sunday’s men’s World Cup slalom in Palisades Tahoe, although organizers tried to rush the race through heavy snowfall. In the absence of reliable “video evidence”, there was much debate as to whether or not the supposed winner, runner-up AJ Ginnis, had threaded in the second heat. About half an hour after the race, the Greek was disqualified after all. Instead of him, Norwegian Alexander Steen Olsen celebrated his first World Cup victory. Second was another Norwegian, Timon Haugan. The best Austrian was Fabio Gstrein in eighth.

“I wasn’t sure if I was merging or not, so I kept going,” said Ginnis, who fairly accepted his disqualification after studying the TV tape, which yielded inconclusive results. “I have no problem with the jury’s decision.”

Austria’s slalom ace Manuel Feller, who had to play the “snow plow” in the second round and fell back from eighth to 13th place, was pissed off. Before the start, the race was interrupted for a long time due to the TV commercial break. “I don’t know why you have to take a break from TV when there’s snow like this,” said the 30-year-old, who is still waiting for a win after three second places this season. In general, the ÖSV slalom team is threatened with a winter without a win. The only chance of success is on March 19 at the World Cup finals in Soldeu. In the fight for the small crystal ball for the discipline World Cup, Feller gambled away his last theoretical chance on Sunday. “I’m missing a bit of basic speed and certain technical things,” says ÖSV men’s racing director Marko Pfeifer, who was at least happy about Marco Schwarz’s victory in the previous problem discipline giant slalom in Palisades Tahoe.