Friday training was also canceled: five ÖSV athletes left Zermatt

The jury decided an hour before the planned start at 11:30 a.m. in persistently heavy snowfall that preparing the slopes for Saturday had priority. According to the organizer, this day has the best chance of a race. Five ÖSV athletes around Marco Schwarz and Johannes Strolz had already left Zermatt on Thursday.

According to the ÖSV, the two of them are using the good conditions in Gurgl for slalom training, knowing that the prospects are poor. In Ötztal you have the opportunity to “train on the future World Cup slalom slope,” said men’s head coach Marko Pfeifer. If it is foreseeable that a race can take place in Zermatt/Cervinia on Saturday, there is a possibility that Schwarz will return on Friday evening.

Read more:

• Thursday training for Matterhorn descents canceled
• Rainfall and wind in Zermatt: Ski World Cup struggles with weather again

Rieser, Hacke and Traninger on their way to Canada

Meanwhile, the speed specialists Stefan Rieser, Felix Hacker and Manuel Traninger made their way to Nakiska in Canada to prepare for the European Cup. It had been planned for some time that, for organizational and logistical reasons, the coaches would have to decide which athletes would start the journey and therefore leave Zermatt for this reason. “Unfortunately, qualification wasn’t possible yesterday. That forced us to make a coaching decision,” explained Pfeifer. For Stefan Babinsky, Christoph Krenn and Christian Walder it is clear that they would be lined up for any races in Zermatt/Cervinia.

“No chance” for Friday training

According to Pfeifer, there was “no chance” for training on Friday. “Far too much fresh snow has taken its toll on the slopes. There is always fog,” said the Carinthian, who was not very optimistic about the weekend: “If the weather forecast is correct, what you see and hear, and the wind should come , the chances are almost zero, so very low.”

Of course everyone wants to race, but it will be difficult, says Pfeifer. “It’s possible that things will look a little better at the weekend. Let’s hope and see what happens,” said Vincent Kriechmayr, a little more confident. Downhill training was canceled on Thursday due to snowfall and poor visibility.

After last year’s cancellation due to lack of snow, this year’s edition is shaky because of the threat of incessant snowfall. If the races actually take place at the weekend, Pfeifer’s second year as head coach at the ÖSV will only really begin. “I would like us to win more than four or five races,” he repeated his motto.

The program is still being maintained

Further rainfall and wind are forecast for the following days. However, we are still sticking to the program and hoping for suitable weather windows. A further cancellation of both races on Saturday and Sunday (each at 11.30 a.m./live on ORF 1) would be another PR failure for the organizers and especially for the FIS leadership, which absolutely wants to realize the cross-border speed opening.

Pfeifer would not basically say “that it is completely pointless” to drive here, he assured on Thursday. “But if you go at that point, you certainly have to reckon with the fact that it’s a fifty-fifty chance. You can have a good week once. But whether you can do two races and two training sessions…” showed Carinthians are skeptical. Moving the races to spring was also discussed. “But apparently that’s not possible because of the quarters and certain other circumstances.”

Kriechmayr candidate for victory, black “big question mark”

If you take the benchmarks from previous years, Vincent Kriechmayr is one of the contenders for victory on his team. The 49-year-old wants to see an improvement in the other athletes over the course of the season. Daniel Hemetsberger’s performance curve is steadily increasing, and he is also hoping for further development from Daniel Danklmaier, who is fully fit again. Marco Schwarz is “the big question mark” in the speed area. He will certainly still need it. But depending on the character of the route or which descent we will take, I always see him keen.

Pfeifer expects the “so-called younger generation” around Felix Hacker, Stefan Rieser and Manuel Traninger “to get us fixed places in the European Cup” and to make it into the top 30 at any World Cup starts. “You have to leave the church in the village. It won’t be the case that they will squeeze everything in without the scope,” he emphasized. He therefore sent the trio to Nakiska in Canada, where there are perfect training conditions before the start of the European Cup. It also means getting training kilometers for Raphael Haaser, Julian Schütter, Andreas Ploier and Lukas Feurstein, who took off for Beaver Creek on Friday.

Prize money of up to 170,000 francs is available

For Kriechmayr and Co., who are staying in Europe for the time being, Zermatt/Cervinia is also about a few amenities that underline the special status of the race. The Swiss-Italian border is marked on the route by an archway where customs officers from both countries are posted. There’s no shortage of prize money either: the winner receives 60,000 Swiss francs (62,506 euros) and a voucher for climbing the Matterhorn. If an athlete were to win both races, he would receive an additional bonus of 50,000 francs on top of the 120,000. Only in Kitzbühel, where you receive 100,000 euros for victory, can the alpine stars earn even more prize money.

Critic: “FIS must stop destruction”

In the event of a total cancellation, the OK team’s efforts would have been in vain and even more grist would flow to the critics’ mill. Many people see the event as just a gigantic marketing gimmick at the expense of the glaciers. “In times of climate crisis, it is absurd to use heavy equipment to accelerate the collapse of the last glaciers. The FIS must finally stop this destruction and anchor glacier protection in the association,” Greenpeace expert Ursula Bittner reiterates the environmental organization’s position after both Proceedings have been opened on the border regarding the preparatory work.