The SportNews ski cannon: This is what 2019 will be like

That was 2018… Let's take a look back at how the season has gone so far. 29 races have already been run, the dominators are Marcel Hirscher and Mikaela Shiffrin. The US ski girl has competed in 13 races this season (she did not start in Val Gardena), she has won eight times, including all four slaloms, as well as two super-Gs, a giant slalom and a parallel slalom. Marcel Hirscher drove eight races and has five victories to his name. In the overall World Cup, the Salzburg man leads by over 200 points over his teammate Max Franz, and Mikaela Shiffrin has already collected 1.034 points, while her pursuer Petra Vlhova has 568 points. Both are a superior force, Hirscher's mistake in the slalom in Madonna di Campiglio and Shiffrin's mistake in the giant slalom in Semmering only make the two of them human anyway.

Marcel Hirscher during the parallel giant slalom in Alta Badia © APA/afp / ALBERTO PIZZOLI

From a South Tyrolean perspective, Dominik Paris and Christof Innerhofer are of course the shining stars of this season, Paris struck twice in Bormio and was on the podium in third place in Beaver Creek and Lake Louise. Innerhofer came second in Lake Louise, Val Gardena and Bormio. However: Both have been eliminated once each, “Inner” has four results outside the top 15, Paris did not make it into the top 15 twice. Both still lack the consistency to be able to intervene in the fight for the ball in downhill and super-G.

Winning sparkling wine for Dominik Paris, Christof Innerhofer and Beat Feuz in Bormio © APA/afp / MIGUEL MEDINA

Nicol Delago celebrated her first podium finish in the World Cup at her home race on the Saslong; the 22-year-old came second in the first women's World Cup downhill in Val Gardena. And then there were a few smaller great moments: Alex Vinatzer was happy about his first World Cup points in 16th place in the slalom in Saalbach, Riccardo Tonetti set the best time in the second round of the giant slalom in Val d'Isere, and Simon Maurberger also got his first points in the Slalom.

The South Tyrolean trainers' protégés are also showing a positive form: Manuel Gamper (Canada) and Luis Prenn (Switzerland) regularly bring new faces into the points among the women, and ski serviceman Leo Mussi (Fischer) plays a key role in the surprisingly strong ones Performances of his protégés Steven Nyman and Bryce Bennett.

Winner in Saalbach: Zan Kranjec © APA / BARBARA GINDL

International skiing history has also been written so far this season: Zan Kranjec was the first Slovenian to win a World Cup giant slalom (Saalbach) and Petra Vlhova achieved the first giant slalom victory for Slovakia at Semmering.

This is how 2019 will be… The new year will be a good year! This applies both and probably certainly also in general - because ski guns see the glass half full and not half empty. The ski cannons always prefer a completely full glass, no matter what year it is. Having said that, let's get to the point: 2019 starts with many highlights, on January 15th the women will be guests at Kronplatz again, then the men will have the classics Adelboden, Wengen, Kitzbühel and Schladming, and February will be all about it Sign of the 2019 World Ski Championships in Are. In the past, a World Cup in Are was always good for South Tyrol: in 2007 Patrick Staudacher became world champion in the Super-G, Manfred Mölgg won silver in the slalom and Denise Karbon bronze in the giant slalom. Only at the 1954 World Cup were there no medals for the “Azzurri” . After the World Cup in Sweden, the women will return to the 2014 Olympic slopes in Rosa Khutor (Sochi) after five years. For both sexes, the season ends in mid-March in Andorra.

A look at the gym shows that the injured athletes are already working hard on their comeback in 2019: Johanna Schnarf, Vivien Insam, Verena Gasslitter and Peter Fill will come back stronger.

With this in mind, the entire editorial team wishes SportNews -Skikanone wish all readers a happy new year in 2019.

_____________________ The SportNews -Skikanone accompanies you as a regular column through the 2018/19 World Cup winter.

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The SportNews ski cannon: This is what 2019 will be like

It's not yet half-time in the Ski World Cup, but a lot has happened since the opening in Sölden at the end of October - both positive and negative. And 2019 has a special treat for all ski fans.

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