Alex Vinatzer (at the back) celebrates gold with Lara Della Mea, Giorgia Collomb and Filippo Della Vite. © APA/afp / DIMITAR DILKOFF

Golden start! Vinatzer is team world champion

What a start to the 2025 Ski World Championships in Saalbach-Hinterglemm: Italy took the gold medal in the team parallel event. Alex Vinatzer played a major role in this.

04. February 2025

From: dl

Together with Lara Della Mea, the 18-year-old Giorgia Collomb and Filippo Della Vite, Vinatzer was crowned team world champion on Tuesday in Hinterglemm. In the final, the Azzurri beat Switzerland (Wendy Holdener, Luca Aerni, Delphine Darbellay and Thomas Tumler). Vinatzer, who won the very last race against Tumler, and Collomb played a major role in this. The young Italian took home a gold medal in her first World Championship race. That was not expected.

For Vinatzer, it is already the third World Championship medal in total. In 2019, he won bronze in the team event (together with Simon Maurberger), two years ago he won the same medal in Courchevel - back then in the slalom. Now the 25-year-old has won his first gold medal. Incidentally, this is the 34th World Championship medal for South Tyrol (click here for the graphic). For Vinatzer, this is certainly a highlight of his career so far. The season had not been easy for the Val Gardena native, apart from the Kitzbühel podium. Now he has secured the 13th World Championship gold for South Tyrol.

Alex Vinatzer secured the gold medal for Italy in the final against the Swiss Thomas Tumler. © APA/afp / FABRICE COFFRINI

Switzerland, which made it through to both the quarter-finals and the semi-finals, had to settle for silver. Bronze went to Sweden (including Sara Hector), which beat the USA in the small final.

Because of a hundredth of a second into the final

Italy had an easy draw in the round of 4: Ukraine was not an equal and professional opponent and so the Azzurri advanced there with 0-3 wins. The quarter-final against France was much more difficult, with Italy advancing with a 1-4 win. Vinatzer beat Thibaut Favrot by 2 hundredths. The semi-final between Italy and Sweden (2-XNUMX) was spectacular. Vinatzer lost to Kristoffer Jakobsen by one hundredth. In the end, the Azzurri advanced against the Scandinavians over time (by a measly hundredth).

Giorgia Collomb, only 18 years old, showed an incredible performance. © APA/afp / DIMITAR DILKOFF

Austria's hoped-for successful debut at the home World Championships failed. The mixed team consisting of Julia Scheib, Stephanie Brunner, Stefan Brennsteiner and Dominik Raschner lost to Sweden in the quarter-finals of the parallel competition. The duel ended 2:2, but time was against the team from the host country. This was the first of eleven World Championship competitions. The competition continues on Thursday (11.30 a.m.) with the women's Super-G.