According to head coach Christian Mitter, Cornelia Hütter (7th), Super-G silver medalist Mirjam Puchner (8th), Ramona Siebenhofer (12th) and Tamara Tippler (19th) failed because of the challenge of the Winter Games, but also because of the fresh snow and changed snow conditions in freezing temperatures. “They’ve tried everything,” Mitter states. It was not due to the material coordination. “But we’re not quite ready when every corner pushes you so hard that we fumble out the last bit in every situation, in every situation. Then it’s also a high-speed descent, where you always want to go faster.”
Some would have done that absolutely, but nothing went further. The external circumstances such as wind blowing differently or changes in light and shadow due to passing clouds were not included in the first justification. “That’s pointless now, now we’ve lost, I can’t just say it was the wind.”
After the successful World Cup season, the performance is of course sobering. “Of course that’s a shame. We had a podium in every descent, except for the second Lake Louise descent, where we finished fourth, which was our worst descent this year,” Mitter noted. Siebenhofer was second and third, Puchner was third twice and Hütter was third in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
“If the downhill had been the first race, one could assume that the situation would have been too big. But in the Super-G they largely proved that it wasn’t the Olympics. They showed that they could do it. On a new one Track down here for the first time at the Olympics and then deliver in Super-G like that, you know they were ready. You can take that with you.”
Therefore, the balance of the Olympic speed races was still positive. “We were also unlucky in the Super-G, otherwise things could get really rough. We’re in.” Behind second place from Puchner, Tippler missed the podium by only 3/100 in fourth, Hütter finished eighth.
“The snow conditions, the brutally hard, I find it extremely difficult, I can’t build up a feeling there. That was from above, I didn’t get into it,” said Puchner after the descent. “We have to analyze that well. I have to find a way under the circumstances so that I can catch up better there. It’s similar to Cortina, where I had the problem this year too. You learn from defeats, usually more than from victories .”
Tippler explained that she had no basic speed and that nothing had progressed. “That’s the worst thing for a racer when the thrust doesn’t come from the ski, from the snow.” Of course, one had hoped for more as a team, said Hütter.
Source: Nachrichten
