With the surprising team silver, the Alpine save their Olympic record. The coup comes after “hard punches in the pit of the stomach” like a salvation.
The ice-cold storm almost swept the silver quintet off the podium, but not only Lena Dürr felt really warm after the liberating Olympic final. “It was bearable,” said the team leader and laughed, in this moment of happiness she felt “pure enjoyment and joy” “that we can stand there”.
After the medalless games in 2018 and all the disappointments at the cursed Xiaohaituo, the coup in the team competition was a “salvation” for the battered ski racers, as Alpine boss Wolfgang Maier said. “All’s well that ends well,” he said, “we’re very happy, the medal is extremely good for us.”
All the fourth, seventh and eighth places in the two weeks before felt like a “hard punch in the pit of the stomach”, Maier told the “SID”. He was “very proud” of his athletes, he bravely emphasized on Saturday, “but there is no killer in it”. Instead, there were many team players who, under extremely challenging conditions, as a conspiratorial bunch, still discovered the “pig” in the racing driver that Maier had sorely missed for a long time.
After some dramatic victories on the windswept “rainbow” slope against vice world champion Sweden, Pyeongchang Olympic champion Switzerland and the USA with the medalless superstar Mikaela Shiffrin, only top favorite Austria was too strong. Dürr, Emma Aicher, Schmid, Linus Straßer and Julian Rauchfuss were only 0.19 seconds short of gold.
Weidle popped the corks via Instagram
The slalom fourth Dürr stood out with four wins in four duels in the parallel races, but it was a real team success: Before the finale, Straßer withdrew because he found it “quite difficult” in almost irregular conditions with violent gusts – and sent Rauchfuss on track.
At the top of the draughty “podium” the five “musketeers” thought of Kira Weidle. The downhill fourth was intended as a replacement, but had to leave early because of her commitments in the World Cup and the postponement of the race by one day. “That’s for Kira too,” they would have said to each other, reported Schmid, and the others nodded. Weidle popped the corks via Instagram.
Dreßen was sorely missed
Maier also paid tribute to his athletes for the attitude with which they accepted their defeats. In the future he wants to promote “the tough ego” without burying the team spirit that is so alive in Beijing – a difficult task. Especially since ruthlessness in this rock-hard sport often leads to injuries, “that’s a balancing act”.
One who embodies this racing driver gene like no other was sorely missed in China. Without Thomas Dreßen, the downhill riders suffered the “biggest defeat,” said Maier. The good news: Dreßen put on his downhill skis for the first time on Friday after a long injury break. His badly injured knee, he said happily, “felt perfect.” Like the award ceremony in Yanqing – despite the storm.