Thomas Dreßen and his way to the top

The Ski World Cup in Kitzbühel is different than any other place in the world. Hahnenkamm Week is about celebrities, glamour, seeing and being seen. For the athletes, this is all secondary. They want to win. Preferably the descent, the most dangerous and difficult of all. Everyone who won in Kitzbühel knows that afterwards nothing will be the same as it was before. A lot has also changed in Thomas Dreßen's life. From now on, the Bavarian, who lives with his girlfriend in Upper Austria, will be the favorite in every descent.

The meaning of the “44” on the racing helmet

Thomas Dreßen knows that there is more to life than just sport. In 2005 he lost his father Dirk in the Sölden cable car accident. Since then he has been driving with the number 44 on his helmet because “D” is the fourth letter in the alphabet. It was his father's big dream that his son would one day compete in the World Cup. Thomas Dreßen achieved it in January 2015. At the downhill run in Saalbach he competed in the big races for the first time. He was 39. Three years later, Dreßen is at the top in Kitzbühel - the first German to do so since Sepp Ferstl in 1979. A surprise, of course. But not a coincidence.

In spring 2014, Matthias Berthold took over as head coach of the Germans. His goal was for German skiers to compete for medals at the Olympics in South Korea. The technicians around Felix Neureuther and Fritz Dopfer were capable of this. But the downhill riders? Never. But the Austrian knew what had to be done and, together with speed trainer Christian Schwaiger, changed the training.

Dreßen had to learn how to drive with his brain

It is now clear that the work at DSV is bearing fruit and the right decisions have been made. In November 2017, Dreßen stood on the podium for the first time in the Beaver Creek downhill run, the legendary Birds of Prey. A week later there was a shock in the German ski team. Young talent Max Burkhart, who comes from the same area as Dreßen, died after a training accident in Lake Louise.

" You have to ignore the fear of death “, said Peter Fill from Castelrotto and Dreßen knows that “full speed is the best defense.” The 24-year-old from Mittenwald learned that he also has to drive with his brains from Schwaiger and Berthold, whom he respectfully calls “the best trainers in the world " designated. After the Kitzbühel descent, Berthold even said that he deliberately didn't train his boys to be XNUMX percent. What sounds like a precautionary measure can actually be understood as a declaration of war. So it's going to be exciting, because in the future the Germans will also be involved in the fast disciplines again.

SN/Christian Staffler

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Thomas Dreßen and his way to the top

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