After three slaloms and giant slaloms, the female speed riders are now also taking part in the Alpine World Cup this weekend. Kira Weidle-Winkelmann is hoping for a decent start to the Olympic winter at the races in St. Moritz.
It was almost seven weeks ago that Kira Weidle-Winkelmann experienced a moment of shock. During training, she slipped over the outside skis, hit her face against a goal post with full force and landed in the safety net. The consequences for the 29-year-old were a broken nose, an operation and a two-week break. Her teammate Lena Dürr commented on an Instagram post with a video of the accident and a picture after the operation with a few rhymes: “Leaves: Colorful. Nose: Sore. Winter: In sight. Autumn poem”.
Luckily for Weidle-Winkelmann, the season for the speed specialists doesn’t start until this weekend in St. Moritz. While the men have already completed downhill runs and Super-G in Beaver Creek and Copper Mountain, the women have only had three slaloms and World Cups on the program so far. So there was enough time to recover.
The long wait is finally over
“I had a good preparation – except for my broken nose, which put me out of action for two weeks”says the 2021 World Cup runner-up, who is happy: “The wait until the really late start to the season is over.” Weidle-Winkelmann got the final touches in Canada and there “Worked mainly on technical elements and also included the mental component from time to time”.
She hopes for the races this weekend “Look forward to good weather, because then it’s great fun to drive there!“And when she’s having fun, she can be very fast. Her best placement on the 2.5 kilometer long course on St. Moritz’s local mountain Corviglia in 2022 was third place in the downhill. In 2023 she achieved another top 10 result. Otherwise she always had her problems, in the Super-G she never got above 19th place in eight races. In the first training run on Wednesday she came 13th.
Aicher and Dorigo also at the start
In addition to Weidle-Winkelmann, the German Ski Association (DSV) has nominated two other athletes for the three races (downhill on Friday and Saturday and super-G on Sunday) in Switzerland. Emma Aicher and Fabiana Dorigo will also be at the start.
The alpine men, on the other hand, are guests in Val d’Isere. The technical disciplines are on the program there. Hannes Amman, Anton Grammel, Fabian Gratz, Alexander Schmid and Jonas Stockinger were called up for the giant slalom and Sebastian Holzmann, Anton Tremmel and Linus Straßer for the slalom.