National coach Wolf: “Being there is everything”
The 21-year-old Kress currently has four competitions behind him. At the start he fell on the descent, luckily he was uninjured. This was followed by 27th place in the Super-G and most recently a respectable 17th place in the Super Combined. The final slalom is on the program on Sunday (03/13/2022).
“Being there is everything”, national coach Justus Wolf emphasized about his two male starters Kress and Christoph Glötzner, who was also one-legged. However, Glötzner’s planned Paralympic debut failed in the most bitter way possible.
Slalom use for Glötzner more than questionable
Kress’ team mate and good friend fell while driving in. The 18-year-old suffered a serious bruised shinbone and a muscle injury in his upper arm. His actually planned use in the slalom is more than questionable.
A “real childhood dream” had come true, the high school graduate told Bayerischer Rundfunk in the run-up to the competition and was already looking forward to the next games in Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzo in 2026 with ambition: “In the long term, my demands are definitely higher. I would like to win gold in Italy.”
Visually impaired: third gold for Austria
The only 16-year-old Johannes Aigner won the third gold for Austria at these Paralympics in Beijing. with Guide Matteo Fleischmann decided Aigner the competition of the visually impaired in front of the Italian Giacomo Bertagnolli (+1.68s). Guide Andrea Ravelli and Miroslav Haraus (+5.58s) and Guide Maros Hudik from Slovakia for himself.
Aigner, whose twin sister Barbara and older sister Veronika compete in the giant slalom and slalom for visually impaired women, has won medals in all four of his Beijing competitions so far: in addition to the giant slalom, gold in the downhill, silver in the super combination and bronze in the Super G.