World Ski Championships—Men's Super-G: Reichelt Does the Double for Austria
Hannes Reichelt made it two gold medals in a row in the super-G for the Austrian team at the 2015 Alpine World Ski Championships. His first place in the postponed men's race followed on from Anna Fenninger's success two days earlier.
It took until the final day of the Schladming-hosted fortnight two years ago for the fervent ski nation to win an individual gold, when Marcel Hirscher salvaged national pride in the slalom (they had finished first in the team event). Much will still be expected of the Austrians, but for now they can savour the best possible start to this year's edition.
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The weather had settled on Thursday after heavy snow and strong winds had delayed the men's super-G turn. On a stunning day in Beaver Creek, there certainly proved to be more to talk about than the conditions. We start off, though, with Reichelt.
The winner's story
One of the veteran's of the World Cup circuit, 34-year-old Reichelt has shown his fellow male Austrian speed skiers—largely underachieving this season by their country's high, if not always fair standards—how it is done.
He set a marker for this week's performance when he won the Beaver Creek World Cup super-G in early December. It did not guarantee a repeat (on Tuesday, Switzerland's Lara Gut was unable to follow up her win in the same discipline from the last time the women raced the venue in late 2013), but it evidently proved a useful enough confidence boost for his return to America.
A disappointing showing back home in Kitzbuhel last time out followed Reichelt's victory in the classic Wengen downhill the previous weekend. It reiterated his inconsistency this season, but also proved what he is capable of, too.
That was seen with a run down the Birds of Prey course which got faster with each intermediate check. When he crossed the finish line, his time of 1:15.68 was 0.24 seconds faster than previous leader, Frenchman Adrien Theaux.
The World Cup super-G top two, Norwegian Kjetil Jansrud (battered and bruised by his descent) and Italian Dominik Paris followed to no avail. Ted Ligety (USA) finished a respectable ninth, but was +0.70 away from remaining World Champion in the discipline.
This was to be Reichelt's day.
"It sounds really good to be called a World Champion," Reichelt told the International Ski Federation's (FIS) website. "I felt a lot of pressure, not from the outside, but I put a lot of pressure on myself because I wanted to repeat what I did in December at the World Cup, so now I am happy to be able to relax a bit."
If he can find a little longed-for consistency, he might star in Saturday's downhill, too.
Silver and bronze
None of the aforementioned skiers would get their hands on silver. That honour went to Canada's Dustin Cook.
Just a few days shy of his 26th birthday, Cook has enjoyed a breakthrough year on the World Cup circuit.
The super-G has been where his best results have come, too. He finished 12th at Val Gardena/Groeden and also Beaver Creek.
His tremendous Worlds run of 1:15.79 this week—a scintillating effort which further captivated with each encouraging time check—does not feel quite as surprising once you realise his clear fondness for the venue. "Beaver Creek is my personal favourite," he notes in a biography on his official website. "Amazingly fun track, best snow anywhere in the world, and it’s in North America."
That preference will only be reinforced now.
Theaux might come to love the Colorado resort after his bronze medal performance, the best one of a season which had not previously provided a single podium place.
Heck, a top-10 finish was proving elusive prior to January. Fourth in the Kitzbuhel super-G has proved to be more than just a momentary renaissance. He will be keen to finish the 2014-15 season on a high.
Host nation performances
Ligety finished ninth, Steven Nyman and Andrew Weibrecht were joint 20th. Excuse the hurry to get beyond these solid results, but the lead U.S. storyline of the day occurred before any of them left the start hut.
Bode Miller was not the first American to take his turn, but with due respect to Travis Ganong (the third skier out, DNF), he was the one most were especially eager to see.
A solid run in Tuesday's downhill training had confirmed Miller's readiness for his first race of a season disrupted by back problems—and surgery required to correct them. For most of his descent, it looked like being a storybook return, one marked by the thrilling style he has made his trademark.
The 37-year-old was up as much 0.56 seconds on then-leader Georg Streitberger (Austria). After the third intermediate, he still retained a -0.12 advantage as a frenzied home crowd roared in anticipation of his glorious arrival.
Miller's subsequent hook of a gate and dramatic flip through the air was a frightening, heartbreaking end to his comeback attempt. He got up and skied down to the bottom where he was greeted warmly, but where the realisation of a deep cut on his right leg did not bode well.
At the time of writing, his status for the remainder of the World Championships was unclear.
Most disappointed
Miller would certainly feature in this category for how close he came to possibly taking such a crowd-pleasing lead, though certainly not for his overall effort.
The earlier mentioned Jansrud and, especially, Paris will be gutted not to have done better given their strong form this season. Manuel Osborne-Paradis's DNF was a blow individually, albeit one lessened for the Canadian team by Cook's silver.
Underdog tales
We have already discussed Cook, but a mention for Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal is a must here.
Underdog might be stretching it for a former Olympic champion and multi-time World Cup title holder in super-G. Given it was his first race back since recovering from the ruptured Achilles tendon which had threatened to end his season before it begun, sixth place at the World Championships is very impressive (he also briefly held the lead).
Elsewhere, to a World Cup regular, Svindal's compatriot Aleksander Aamodt Kilde recorded a respectable 19th. Russian Pavel Trikhichev's 31st with a bib number of 48 was not too shabby either.
Next up...
The women take on the downhill on Friday before the men get their turn on Saturday.
World Championships results and leaderboard information confirmed via the FIS.
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