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Vincent Kriechmayr: It “bugs me a bit”

Vincent Kriechmayr: It “bugs me a bit”
Vincent Kriechmayr
Image: APA/Barbara Gindl

In the downhill doubles of the ski men in Aspen, starting on Friday, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde will be ahead with a fairly comfortable point cushion. Vincent Kriechmayr and World Champion Marco Odermatt can still challenge him for the small crystal ball. If the speed decisions in the USA triple are postponed, there will be a heart-stopping final in Andorra in two weeks.

Kilde’s lead is 156 points with three remaining descents on Kriechmayr. After the failed World Cup (12th/Super-G, 11th/Downhill), the Upper Austrian struggles with his form and rejects thoughts of the crystal ball.

It “funs me a bit,” said Kriechmayr. The ski star has also been a young hunter since summer 2022, but he doesn’t have Kilde in his sights. “Of course I hope that I can present myself better than at the World Championships. But it’s not that easy at the moment, I wouldn’t count myself among the big favorites. I have to make sure that I can ski better again.”

“The best skier in the world”

If you believe Kriechmayr, all that remains is Odermatt, who can contest Kilde’s successful defense of the downhill title. It is true that Odermatt relegated his rival to second place with a fabulous World Cup downhill run.

But in the World Cup, Kilde has almost always been in the lead in the supreme discipline, as the Swiss, who is already 234 points behind, knows.

For him, Kilde is “the best downhill skier in the world,” Odermatt recently emphasized. Five of the eight World Cup downhill runs went to the Norwegian powerhouse, the remaining three were grabbed by his Upper Austrian counterpart Kriechmayr, who is already out of the race in third place in the Super-G World Cup. Here Odermatt leads 148 points ahead of Kilde.

Outdated infrastructure

After a five-year hiatus, the world’s best are back on the double chair lifts before blasting down Ruthie’s Run to the renowned ski resort of Aspen. Due to outdated infrastructure – also around the lift system – no World Cup races have taken place in the former silver mining town and today’s noble place since 2017.

In terms of sport, finding your way around quickly is required. The first training session was canceled due to ongoing slope work due to heavy snowfall. The only practice canter is scheduled for today’s Thursday (7:30 p.m. CET). On Friday (7.30 p.m.) and Saturday (7 p.m.) there are downhill runs, on Sunday a Super-G (6 p.m.) is on the program.

Austria’s best speed pilot of the France World Cup has collected road kilometers in the past few days. As the premiere winner in the giant slalom, Marco Schwarz has moved the 1,500 kilometers from Lake Tahoe (California) to Aspen (Colorado).

“I really liked the road trip,” said the Carinthian, who has no experience on the downhill run in Aspen, but wants to annoy the industry stars again with his own coolness. “It’s always good when there are new routes where the others don’t have the advantage. Of course, many were there at the 2017 World Cup final, but that was some time ago. From that perspective, it suits me quite well,” said Schwarz before his second World Cup special run.

Hemetsberger enjoyed the deep snow

Daniel Hemetsberger has also arrived in the USA in the truest sense of the word, after the time change had affected him this time too. “Meanwhile I’m pretty well acclimatized, I think, and I’m looking forward to the races,” said Hemetsberger, who recently also spent deep snow days in the “great ski area” Aspen Highlands. His motto for the World Cup weekend: “Bake smaller rolls after things didn’t go so well recently. Top ten fits.”

Despite all the understatement, Kriechmayr also expected “casual races” on a slope that was fairly unknown to everyone. “The route and course setting will have changed slightly,” speculated the Upper Austrian, who finished ninth downhill in 2017.

With strong training, he had made it into the shop window back then, but lost too much time in the race in the upper sliding section. Six years ago, young blue fir trees were planted on Aspen Mountain for Dominik Paris (downhill) and Hannes Reichelt (super-G) at the World Cup finals, as has been the practice for the World Cup winners since 2009.

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