The five-time World Cup winner Thomas Dreßen made a remarkable comeback at the Downhill World Cup in Lake Louise/Canada.
In his first World Cup race in two and a half years, the former Kitzbühel winner took a strong eighth place in 1:49.00 minutes after 35 starters. The entire world elite had already crossed the finish line at this point, and the track became increasingly slower as the clouds grew.
“I’m super happy with the ride,” said Dreßen: “I felt nervous at the start. It felt like coming home. Then I thought: Now I have to deliver. I did that quite well. “
The 29-year-old, who raised his fist in the finish area and uttered a primal scream, had not competed in a World Cup since March 2020. Since then, Dreßen has had to undergo hip and knee surgery. He only tried his luck at the 2021 World Cup.
Baumann and Schwaiger are also impressive
Aleksander Aamodt Kilde from Norway (1:47.98) secured victory with a lead of 0.06 seconds over Austrian Daniel Hemetsberger and a tenth over last year’s overall World Cup winner Marco Odermatt from Switzerland.
Romed Baumann also presented himself strongly. The 2021 World Cup runner-up in Super-G finished tenth, Dominik Schwaiger finished twelfth. Like Dreßen, who secured starting number four, it was their turn very early.
The race on Lake Louise’s “Olympic Downhill” course, where Dreßen won in 2019 at the first start after a cruciate ligament rupture, was the first World Cup descent of the season. The two competitions planned for the beginning of October on the Matterhorn had previously been canceled due to the weather.
The World Cup in Canada was also not under a good star, on Friday the race was postponed at short notice “due to the current weather situation and the forecast for the rest of the day”. For the men it was only the second race of the season after the World Cup opener in Sölden (giant slalom).
On Sunday (8:30 p.m. CET) there is still a Super-G on the program in Lake Louise.