Linus Straßer follows behind. © APA/afp / MARCO BERTORELLO

Linus Straßer expresses frustration: “It’s no fun”

Linus Straßer is still struggling to get going this season. After a botched first run, the 32-year-old took too many risks in the second run of the Slalom World Cup in Alta Badia, Italy, and did not finish.

23 December 2024

From: dpa

"It's not fun," said the Munich native on Bavarian Radio. "If you want to take something positive from such a starting position, then it's that you have little to lose. It was really good in parts, but there were always small mistakes." He now wants to find ways out of the slump.

The best was Timon Haugan. In his second World Cup victory, the Norwegian was 1,13 seconds ahead of the Swiss Loic Meillard. His compatriot Atle Lie McGrath came third, 1,26 seconds behind.

Straßer had already struggled with himself after the first round and admitted to a lack of self-confidence. "If you're lacking a little bit of confidence, then you lack the final determination to go through with it properly. Then you always pull back, I notice that myself. That's just how competitive sport is, then you get the tough bill straight away," said the Munich native on Bavarian Radio.

Linus Straßer is not living up to his own expectations. © APA/afp / MARCO BERTORELLO

With a deficit of 2,58 seconds to the best runner, Haugan, he had no longer expected to make it to the second round. But as the track got worse and worse as time went on and a total of 22 runners were eliminated, he still qualified for the final run. "I pulled back a little bit every time I pushed myself back," said Straßer.

Mind as the enemy of the racing driver

After finishing second in the slalom ranking last season, Straßer was actually considered one of the top candidates for overall victory in the discipline ranking this winter. In Levi, Finland, he finished seventh in the first slalom run of the season, but in Gurgl he missed the second run, finishing 38th, and scored no points. Most recently in Val d'Isere, he was also eliminated in the second run.

"The greatest enemy of a racing driver is his mind when it makes him doubt you. We saw today that he is simply not 100 percent convinced of what he is capable of. That is why mistakes like this happen and then he is eliminated: that is certainly not particularly beneficial for his mental state," said Wolfgang Maier, Alpine Director of the German Ski Association, about Linus Straßer.