Hangover mood in Austria: “That’s far too little”

Andreas Puelacher emphasized that he did not want to sugarcoat anything on this “very black day for the sport of giant slalom in Austria”. “That’s far too little that we show,” said the boss of the alpine men, which he has headed since 2014. “But I won’t bury my head in the sand. The work continues, the fight continues.” Thanks to sixth places, he recently identified the beginning of a turnaround. “We have to bring them back here. Because in Garmisch we shot ourselves backwards again at full speed.”

When asked about the reasons for the historically worst performance in a World Cup giant slalom, the North Tyrolean demanded differentiation. “If Brennsteiner slips three times on the inside ski, he has to think about something technically. Leitinger would have been there in Garmisch, a crossover can happen once.” The analysis will show why Marco Schwarz (33rd) didn’t get any traction at all. And Feller - the only Austrian who scored World Cup points on February 02.02.2020nd, XNUMX - was behind in training after his slipped disc.

Hirscher takes a gap Austria's giant slalom team has lost its media lightning rod in Marcel Hirscher. In the previous season, apart from Hirscher, only Feller finished in the top ten more than once. Leitinger and Brennsteiner continue to confirm their inconsistency this year. And the younger guard around Patrick Feurstein (23), who wins the European Cup but has not yet scored points in the World Cup, is waiting for the big hit. Puelacher: “Unfortunately we don’t have the density at the moment. Then results like this come about.”

From then on, Feller spoke of a “catastrophic” team performance. “Of course, something like that with Leiti and Brandy (Brennsteiner, note) shouldn’t happen. But I don't want to criticize anyone, it's happened to me a thousand times." He pointed to a non-ideal starting position, namely the consistently high start numbers in spring-like conditions in the first round. A factor that did not improve with Garmisch.

For over 28 years, Kranjska Gora's RTL from January 1992 was a negative highlight in the statistics. Feller wiped out Hubert Strolz's 22nd place as the best in the men's worst result. For comparison: 5 of the Azzurri athletes made it into the points at the giant slalom in Garmisch (2 of them from South Tyrol), even if they didn't achieve a top result.

According to Puelacher, collective pessimism about the future is not appropriate at the ÖSV. “Adelboden has shown that we can set fastest running times. And although we’re not on the podium, we’re there from fifth onwards.” Switzerland pulls away in the Nations Cup In the Nations Cup, Switzerland pulled away again to 299 points - also thanks to Loic Meillard's second place behind winner Alexis Pinturault (FRA). Next weekend in Chamonix there will be a chance for rehabilitation - and catching up in terms of points - at a slalom and a parallel event.

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Hangover mood in Austria: “That’s far too little”

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