“I’m looking forward to going home now,” said the delighted Upper Austrian Kriechmayr who is also thrilled that so many people want to celebrate with him. “My target was one medal, now I’ve got two.” To begin with he will savour the peace and quiet at home and reflect on his performances and successes in Åre.
“First I’ll unwind a bit, grab a bit of sleep,” said Kriechmayr after finishing 17th in the Combined, his last race. “There was always a lot of stress, a lot of pressure.” For the 27-year-old there is also a small crystal globe at stake because he is currently leading the World Cup Super G rankings with 236 points, just ahead of Olympic champion Matthias Mayer (233), the South Tyrolean world champion Dominik Paris (230) and Norwegian Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (227). “I’m firmly focused on that,” says Kriechmayr, to whom the globe would mean a great deal.
A gold medal for Fischer in Åre went to slalom specialist Daniel Yule who, having won Olympic gold with Switzerland, was now able to celebrate winning WSC gold in the team event. Team spirit was enormously important for this: “That was definitely a decisive factor today,” explained the skier from Lower Valais after the race. But the 25-year-old was unlucky in the closing WSC slalom, falling in the steep section near the end of the first run while heading for a top time.
Silver-medallist Katharina Truppe also highlighted the team spirit: “My first medal, so that’s really cool. I totally loved it. You have to work together and we did that well today.” And the part played by the Carinthian in winning the medal was considerable since she won every one of her four races, including the one in the final against Switzerland. Her last race, the Special Slalom, also ended well, with 8th place.
The rest of the Fischer Race Family also produced impressive performances, though they were not rewarded with medals. Speed queen Ramona Siebenhofer, for example, only missed out on bronze by 0.04 seconds in the Women’s Combined, and she was anything but happy with her 7th place in the Downhill. 2017’s Super G world champion Nicole Schmidhofer had to settle for 9th (Downhill) and 11th (Super G).
Thomas Fanara’s excellent performance in the Men’s Giant Slalom also went unrewarded. Fourth after the first run and in serious medal contention, the experienced Frenchman unfortunately skied out in the second run. While American super glider Steven Nyman put in a convincing show, finishing 8th in the Super G, his compatriot Bryce Bennett made the top ten in the WSC Downhill, placing 9th. In his comeback season, Stefan Brennsteiner also did well, finishing 9th in the Giant Slalom.
