11/23/24
January 23, 2004
The Austrians are scared, : and well they should be: with two of the three World Cup speed events at Kitzbuhel already complete, and the Hahnenkamm downhill scheduled to run tomorrow, Austria has yet to get a victory -- and last year's Hahnenkamm downhill victor, the USA's Daron Rahlves, is looking very good indeed. After coming in third in Wednesday's downhill (not the Hahnenkamm, but run on the same course) -- a race won by Norwegian veteran Lasse Kjus -- Rahlves won today's super G.
Austrian Herman Maier never fails to respond to a loss with a reason why the winner didn't really win, and this time was no exception, as he claimed to have lost half a second in the Hausberg traverse (for the uninitiated, that's an eternity in the downhill). In other words, you didn't win it, Daron, I lost it. Maier had the same trash to talk when he lost to Rahlves in the Hahnenkamm downhill last year. Rahlves shrugged it off. He's got a shiny new gondola with his name on it in Kitzbuhel -- and Maier doesn't. And, after tomorrow, Rahlves just might have another of those funky antelope-on-drugs Hahnenkamm trophies.
Meanwhile, the failure of the Austrians to get on top of the podium has implications for the overall World Cup standings. The USA's Bode Miller, who was written off by the usual pack of dummies after he crashed a couple of times, is steadily climbing up in the standings, helped by his own seventh place finish in Thursday's downhill and by Rahlves' victory knocking back his Austrian competition. He's now in sixth place overall, while Rahlves is standing at a very respectable ninth. With a downhill, slalom, and combined calculation to come, it's entirely possible that the Austrians won't get a single win this weekend -- and that the USA will be the team that denies them.
posted by lil_brown_bat to other at 08:17 AM - 7 comments
What are they giving away as prizes nowadays? I have to say getting your name on a gondola is super cool....kinda like getting your own engraved bar stool at the local pub. That antelope thing is weird looking. There's prize money associated with any World Cup race -- a minimum of 100,000 Swiss francs, or roughly US$80,000, divided among the top ten competitors in some manner that's decided by the race organizers. Not exactly what you get for winning the Super Bowl, but... As far as other prizes, the winner of the Hahnenkamm downhill gets their name and country's flag painted on one of the gondolas. You don't get an engraved barstool at the local pub, AFAIK, but it is traditional for the winner of the race to guest-bartend at the traditional big after-race party at the Londoner, a local bar. Rumor has it that Daron drank one for every one he poured last year ;-) Austria is not a big country, and the Hahnenkamm is a very big deal there, probably the biggest sporting event in the country, with crowds of up to 100,000 people. They really, really want an Austrian to win it. But it's also the race that captures the imagination of skiers everywhere -- it's the course that many remember from Franz Klammer's epic run in the Innsbruck Olympics. Daron Rahlves wanted to win the Hahnenkamm with every bit as much passion as any Austrian, and I'd say he's even more fired up this year. The Austrians really, truly will have a meltdown if one of their boys doesn't win tomorrow -- and if Bode or Lasse Kjus wins the combined, I predict that they're just gonna take their whole coaching staff out back behind the barn and shoot 'em.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 10:23 AM on January 23, 2004
Thanks for posting this, lil_brown_bat. This week's New Yorker has a good story on Hermann Maier and Bode Miller (not online, unfortunately). Maier's brute strength and technique is lauded, as is Miller's aggressiveness and use of carving-edge ski technology.
posted by msacheson at 01:18 PM on January 23, 2004
Speaking of carving-edge technology, llb, what do you think of the shaped skis? Are they legal in WC competition?
posted by garfield at 01:23 PM on January 23, 2004
Speaking of carving-edge technology, llb, what do you think of the shaped skis? Are they legal in WC competition? Yup. In the tech events (slalom and GS) they use pretty radical shapes -- about the most radical allowed by the FIS regulations. The skis for the speed events -- super G and downhill -- are a lot straighter, but they've still got more shape than back in the day. Some of the better rec skis are strongly based on race ski designs, BTW (for example, the Atomix SX and the new thing that's coming out, the GSX).
posted by lil_brown_bat at 09:50 PM on January 23, 2004
Update, Downhill results: Austria's Eberharter wins Hahnenkamm by over a second over USA's Rahlves. Maier 9th, Miller 16th.
posted by msacheson at 10:00 AM on January 24, 2004
Awesome stuff, l_b_b. Keep it coming, please. I grew up skiing, but I've never tried the carving-edge stuff. Hmmmm.
posted by lbergstr at 04:35 PM on January 24, 2004
He's got a shiny new gondola with his name on it in Kitzbuhel -- and Maier doesn't. And, after tomorrow, Rahlves just might have another of those funky antelope-on-drugs Hahnenkamm trophies. What are they giving away as prizes nowadays? I have to say getting your name on a gondola is super cool....kinda like getting your own engraved bar stool at the local pub. That antelope thing is weird looking.