First Kitzbühel, now Schladming. Ski racer Linus Straßer is in outstanding shape. He achieved something that no German has achieved for a long time.
Linus Straßer is in impressive form. Germany’s best slalom rider has now achieved another victory after his surprising success at the slalom in Kitzbühel last weekend. At the World Cup in Schladming, the Munich native once again took first place in the night run under floodlights. Armin Bittner last achieved two German World Cup victories in slalom in a row – in 1990.
“Kitzbühel won, Schladming won: That’s unbelievable,” said Straßer about his sensational success. “These are moments for a lifetime, as I said in Kitzbühel. I’m just enjoying them now.”
In partly pouring rain at the 2013 World Cup venue, the 31-year-old won ahead of Timon Haugan from Norway (+0.28 seconds) and the Frenchman Clement Noel (+1.02). In the World Cup standings, he reduced the gap to the leading Austrian Manuel Feller to 132 points.
“It’s very easy for me right now to concentrate on the important things. I’m very good about the skis. I’m enjoying this momentum,” said Straßer after his triumph on Bayerischer Rundfunk. Only narrowly in the lead in the first round, Straßer kept his nerve and even increased his lead over the Norwegian Haugan in the second round. It was a demonstration of his driving skills. “I heard the last split time, 0.54 seconds, and thought to myself: That should work out – and the last five goals were actually quite easy to score.”
The DSV athlete didn’t let the external conditions stop him in his fifth World Cup victory. “Earlier in football, my games were the ones where things got messy,” joked the winner on Bavarian Radio. Last year, the 31-year-old slalom specialist was eliminated in Schladming.
“He’s just with himself”
With the victory in Kitzbühel behind him, where he had left the competition behind three days earlier, things were now going better for him on the 2013 World Cup route. “At the start I was fully with myself, fully committed. I had a plan of how I wanted to approach it and I fully implemented it,” he said.
Straßer now has a total of five World Cup victories and has thus caught up with Thomas Dreßen. Dreßen ended his career in Kitzbühel due to persistent injuries. Only four other men’s ski racers in this country celebrated more World Cup successes than Straßer and Dreßen: Felix Neureuther (13), Markus Wasmeier (9), Armin Bittner (7) and Christian Neureuther (6).
Felix Neureuther then expressed his appreciation for Straßer’s performance. “If it works, it works,” he said on BR. “Linus stayed so cool. He’s just with himself, he’s clear, it’s just good.”