Raphael Mahlknecht is looking forward to the home World Cup

Raphael Mahlknecht can confidently be described as a telemark pioneer. He is the first South Tyrolean athlete to practice this sport semi-professionally and compete in the World Cup. And as a bronze medalist in the parallel sprint at the last Junior World Championships in Mürren, Switzerland, he is also a very successful telemarker. “I started alpine ski racing as a child. As an eleven-year-old, I came into contact with telemarking for the first time on the Seiser Alm when this discipline was also being competed at the end of the season. I was fascinated by telemarking from the start and really wanted to try it,” says Mahlknecht, whose first teacher was Markus Troger. At a World Cup race on the Hintertux Glacier, a German trainer noticed the young, enthusiastic spectator Raphael Mahlknecht. “I was then invited to a training camp by the German team and a little later I started in the World Cup. Since then I have mostly trained with the Swiss, but also with the Norwegian team. We are a big family and support each other wherever we can,” explains the 21-year-old South Tyrolean. This is a telemark sprint race Now Mahlknecht can show his skills in front of a South Tyrolean audience for the first time when two World Cup sprints take place on the Karerpass on Wednesday and Thursday. “I am extremely happy and for me the home World Cup is a huge gift. The sprint itself is first of all a giant slalom. We all have to take the corners with the Telemark kink. If this is not carried out properly, there is a penalty second. Halfway there we have to complete a jump, which is usually 20 to 30 meters long. The landing has to be done in telemark again,” explains Mahlknecht. If the execution of the telemark landing is not clean or the athletes land before the specified length of the jump, there will be another penalty second. “After the jump, the giant slalom continues again. Before the finish there is a 360° steep curve waiting for us, where we have to take as much momentum as possible. Because the last part of the route is flat and there we have to push hard with our arms, like in cross-country skiing. That’s also the reason why we use cross-country skiing poles,” adds the young South Tyrolean. Versatility is required Telemarking is therefore a very versatile sport in which elements from both Alpine and Nordic disciplines occur. “It's exactly this versatility that fascinates me because you actually have to be able to do everything. My key point is always the jump. “You are torn out of the giant slalom rhythm and then have to quickly find your way back into it,” says the Völser, who finished in the top 45 ten times in 10 World Cup races. Raphael Mahlknecht's favorites at the Telemark World Cup in South Tyrol include the two Frenchmen Bastien Dayer and Elie Nabot, as well as the two long-term injured Trym Nygaard Loeken (Norway) and Nicolas Michel (Switzerland), who are celebrating their comeback in Carezza. Among the women, there will probably be no way around the Swiss Amélie Wenger-Reymond. She has won no less than 158 World Cup races in telemark, became world champion 20 times and has a whopping 44 crystal balls in her trophy cabinet (eleven of them for the overall World Cup). No wonder she is considered the most successful FIS athlete ever.

Football

Italy

International leagues

International

Winter sports

Tennis

Other sports

Motorsport

Cycling

Watersports

Events

Favorites

Raphael Mahlknecht is looking forward to the home World Cup

Suggestions

Comments (0)