If the law of the series holds, then Austria’s ski men will also win an Olympic medal on Sunday morning (3.15 a.m. and 6.45 a.m., ORF 1). In each of the first three competitions in Yanqing things “rattled”: Matthias Mayer won bronze in the downhill and gold in the Super-G, Johannes Strolz triumphed in the combination.
Will Manuel Feller strike the big hour in the giant slalom tomorrow? Why not? In the previous five races of the season in this discipline, the Tyrolean had three podium places. He finished third in Val d’Isere and Alta Badia and second at the dress rehearsal in Adelboden. As a trophy, the 29-year-old took a cowbell with him, which – in keeping with his nature – he let ring particularly loudly. In China, however, Feller strikes a softer note – knowing full well that the bear’s skin should not be distributed before it has been killed.
“I don’t like the snow at all. If we had one like that all winter, it would eliminate half the field. It’s brutal on the body,” said the slalom vice world champion from St. Moritz in 2017. Judging by the results, it’s okay in the mountains northwest of Beijing for the competition of the Swiss Marco Odermatt, who won four of the five giant slaloms in 2021/22, for a maximum of second place.
But Odermatt is mentally stricken because he was left empty-handed after the downhill and Super-G. It is not a sure-fire success for the 24-year-old.
Feller had imagined the “prelude” to the giant slalom, in which he would form the ÖSV quartet with Marco Schwarz, Stefan Brennsteiner and Raphael Haaser, differently. “On the second day after my arrival, they locked me away. I was ‘close contact’, thank God I was allowed to stay in the village,” reported Feller, who delivered corona test results with Ct values fluctuating between 36 and 40. Since Wednesday – i.e. after four days in quarantine – the noble technician from St. Johann im Pongau has been free again. Sunday morning he not only wants to drive away from the virus. (Alex)
Source: Nachrichten
