Industry News
The much anticipated Hahnenkamm race in Kitzbühel, Austria, saw the first of three events on Friday, January 19. The Downhill on the famous ‘Streif’ is considered the world’s most challenging Downhill ski race. More than 100,000 people come to Kitzbühel every year to watch the spectacle live and millions tune in on TV as the world’s best alpine skiers race down one of the steepest race slopes in the world. The race was slightly delayed today, due to poor visibility on the top section of the Streif, and was moved from 11:30 to 12:30 at which point the fog thankfully had lifted.
The Streif starts at an elevation of 5,463 ft (1,665 m) and goes along 2 miles to the finish at 2,641 ft (805 m). The steepest part, the “Mausefalle”(or mouse trap), has a gradient of 40.4° and FIS athletes are known to hit speeds of over 75–80mph.
Many favorites of the Men’s speed circuit have been out with injuries, including Norway’s Aleksander Aamodt Kilde and France’s Alexis Pinturault, who both suffered season-ending injuries on the Lauberhorn race course in Wengen, Switzerland, last week.
Switzerland’s hopes were resting on the shoulders of Marco Odermatt, who was skiing in bib #10 today. He put down a fantastic race that catapulted him into the lead ahead of Canada’s Cameron Alexander, who had been sitting in the leader’s seat in the finish area for five consecutive skiers with a time of 1.56.21 minutes. U.S. ski racer Bryce Bennet, who had won in Bormio, Italy, raced in bib #6 but failed to beat his neighbor from the north. Likewise, other big names like France’s Dominik Paris, who has won the Downhill an incredible three times at the Hahnenkamm, and Austria’s Vincent Kriechmayr, who won here last year, failed to unseat Cameron Alexander, but Odermatt in bib#10 pipped the Canadian by an incredible 0.12 seconds.
Next up in bib#11 was Ryan Cochran-Siegle from Team USA, who hands down put down the run of his life. At times the American ski racer was three-tenths of a second ahead of Odermatt, and the lead was within reach for the 31-year-old American, but he lost a fraction of his speed towards the end of the course, finishing 0.01 seconds behind Odermatt, in what was ultimately fourth place.
Bib#12 skier Florian Schieder from Italy had surprised everyone last year, when he skied with bib #43, far outside the favorites, to second place, his first and only career World Cup podium. Today proved to be a repeat of this feat — clearly, the Streif suits the 28-year-old Italian —and Schieder skied into the lead 0.29 seconds ahead of Odermatt.
Schieder’s lead was huge for a Downhill race, but everyone knew that after the recent performance by Cyprien Sarazzin, the race was not over until the 29-year-old French skier had raced. Sarazzin had not been on a World Cup podium for four years and has screamed back onto the World Cup stage this season with two first and two second places so far this season (excluding today). It was only the 13th Downhill World Cup race of his career, having previously specialized in Giant Slalom. He picked up incredible speed towards the bottom section of the course, skiing into the lead 0.05 seconds ahead of Schieder, relegating Odermatt to third and Cochran-Siegle to fourth place. No subsequent skier came even close to contesting the top five positioned skiers, who had all finished within less than half a second of one another.
The event at the Hahnenkamm continues tomorrow with another (sold out) Downhill race, as well as a Slalom race on Sunday, January 21, 2024.
