South Tyrol's exotic skier has big plans

Raphael Mahlknecht was actually supposed to start the season in Austria at the weekend. But nothing came of it. Due to the lockdown, the FIS races on the Hintertux Glacier had to be canceled. The starting signal has now been postponed to December 18th. Then it should start in Switzerland. The World Cup doesn't start until next year anyway, with the first race planned for January 1th in Samoëns, France.

Until then there is still enough time for optimal preparation. Instead of the first races of the season, a training camp with the Norwegian national team is on the program from Thursday at Kronplatz in the Puster Valley. Mahlknecht can learn a lot from them. Even though the Swiss recently dominated the World Cup and Swiss Stefan Matter won the 2020 overall World Cup ahead of his compatriot Bastien Dayer, the Norwegians are still one of the strong telemark nations. No wonder, after all, Telemark downhill skiing technology originally comes from Norway. “I always want to get better.” Raphael Mahlknecht The direction of travel for the young South Tyrolean is clear: “I always want to get better.” His best result was eighth place in the parallel sprint at the World Cup in Bad Hindelang/Oberjoch (Germany) in January last year. He also made it into the top 8 twice in the classic discipline as 2th and once in the sprint as 9th. He wants to improve step by step. “The goal this season is initially to have fewer penalty seconds,” he laughs. In this special ski discipline, there are penalty seconds for poorly executed techniques or jumps that are too short.

He is the only South Tyrolean who competes in this sport.

Along with the Lombard Giacomo Bormolini, Mahlknecht is the only Azzurro in the Telemark World Cup. In fact, he is the only one in South Tyrol who practices this sport competitively. The young Völser, who has been competing in the Elite World Cup since December 2017, is eligible to compete in the Junior World Cup for the last time this season. This is expected to take place in Mürren, Switzerland, in March 2022. Then South Tyrol's exotic skier would like to have a say in the podium places.

He prepared intensively for the new season. Training camps with the Norwegian national team were on the program at the Hintertux Glacier in September and October. Training also took place on the Schnalstal Glacier, including with trainers Gottfried Paris, Denise Lanziner and the Val Gardena Ski Club. Keyword telemarking Telemarking is a downhill skiing technique that originally comes from Norway, in which only the tips of the ski boots are fixed by a binding. When riding on the (inside) uphill ski, the rider kneels by lifting the heel of the back foot and pushing the downhill ski forward. Competitive Telemark was invented in 1888 by Sondre Norheim in the province of Telemark (Norway). “It is the origin of all ski sports. Today, telemark is also a racing sport that combines several Nordic sports such as alpine skiing, cross-country skiing and ski jumping in various disciplines,” explains Raphael Mahlknecht. The World Cup includes classic races, sprints and parallel sprints. Among other things, jumps of around 25 meters are evaluated; distance and landing are included in the evaluation.

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South Tyrol's exotic skier has big plans

Telemarker Raphael Mahlknecht also wants to attack this special ski discipline this season. Although he unexpectedly has to wait a little longer until the official start of the season, the 20-year-old from Völs am Schlern still has a lot planned.

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