The Ski World Cup in Saalbach is opened with a team parallel race. A controversial discipline, but one in which Germany was able to celebrate great success.
Two medals are scheduled for the Ski World Cup in Saalbach, which started on Tuesday (04.02.2025). The DSV sports director Wolfgang Maier expressed this ambitious goal – despite the such mew performance in the season so far. “Said dead life longer”said Maier.
A “resurrection” of the “dead” could occur on the first day of the World Cup. Because with the team parallel race on Tuesday (3:10 p.m. on TV and Livestream at Sportschau.de) there is a discipline that lies the Germans.
The DSV drivers have been able to prove their class several times in the format. At the 2023 World Cup in Cortina d’Ampezzo, they cheered on bronze, at the 2022 Olympics in China, the silver medal dangled around Alexander Schmid, Linus Straßer, Lena Dürr, Emma Aicher and Julian Rauchfuss.
However, the silver team from 2022 is a thing of the past. The parallel specialist and world champion of 2023, Schmid, is injured, smoke foot surprisingly announced his end of his career in 2023. What remains with Straßer and Dürr two athletes with a quick swing. Fabian Gratz and Fabiana Dorigo are also planned next to them. Jessica Hilzinger and Anton Grammel complete the team of six.
Emma Aicher, 2021 and 2022 still a team medalist, cannot start. She had broken her hand in November, as has just become known. This means that the necessary, explosive starts in the parallel event are not to be done for them.
The format
Six athletes from the same nation form a team. Four of the six team members start in every round. The team captain decides who competes in the respective duel. Two athletes of different nations then duel in a run -on run. The runner with the better overall time continues.
In the end, the number of victories decides who will move into the next round. If teams have collected the same number of points in one round, the team continues with the fastest overall time. The competition begins with the round of 16, followed by the quarter -finals, the semi -finals and the small final for third place. In the grand finale it goes in the gold.
The barrel is stuck with giant slalom rods-but with significantly smaller radii than in the giant slalom. Which is why slalom specialists often perform well, but also cause falls and mistakes for a special dramaturgy.
In parallel team: controversial and a lot criticized
The World Association FIS actually wanted to kick the discipline completely out of the World Cup program. The format is unpopular for many athletes. The Swiss Marco Odermatt, Loic Meillard and Lara Gut-Behrami, for example, often refrained from start in the past. The criticism of the races was primarily directed against unequal course conditions and impenetrable, complex rules.
The decision was all the more surprising that the parallel race would open the World Cup in Saalbach. The FIS-General Secretary Michel Vion justified the step with the fact that the team competition at the last World Cup in Cortina achieved high ratings and good feedback. In any case, the Germany team should be happy with this decision.