Val Gardena, Italy, stays a good turf as well for US skiers as for service legend Leo Mussi. Bryce Bennett (USA) shocked the whole World Cup circus again with clinching his second win in Val Gardena. Started with a high Bib Bryce crashed into the already started celebrations of Alexander Aamodt Kilde (NOR) and Marco Odermatt (SUI) in the finish area. The current leaders were already giving interviews to the international TV stations as Bryce raced down the hill with Bib 34 and turned things upside down.
Bryce's win on thursday and the cancellations of the previous downhill races resulted in the red Bib for the US skier for the second downhill in Val Gardena. As the leader of the downhill ranking he was able to proof that the result on thursday was no fluke and scored another podium in the second downhill race in Val Gardena. Shoutout to Bryce and his service man genius Leo Mussi, who was able to celebrate his 8th victory in Val Gardena as a responsible service man.
But not only Bryce was able to score a podium in Val Gardena, also Daniel Hemetsberger (AUT) took his chance and ended up on the second place in friday's Super G race. Unfortunately this was the last podium of the season for the Austrian, he had to withdraw from the World Cup races due to ongoing health issues with his knees and back. Come back stronger, Daniel!
Madonna di Campiglio, Italy, gave us plenty of reasons to already celebrate before Christmas the last years. And it did again this year, with Dave Ryding (GBR) scoring another podium. The routined slalom specialist from Chorley showed once again, that he's getting better and better every year. Even though this was his only podium this season, Dave ended up on rank 7 in the Overall Slalom ranking – the best season of his entire career!
The first strike of Raphael Haaser (AUT)! With a strong performance on the icy Stelvio slope in Bormio, the Austrian allrounder showed his skills and ended up on the second rank only beaten by Marco Odermatt (SUI). And that was not the only podium in this season, more to come...
The surprise of the season: Dominik Raschner (AUT) on the podium in Adelboden. The race on the famous Chuenisbergli is known for the incredible atmosphere once the athlete hit the last steep section towards the finish stadium. And the Austrian athlete took advantage of this atmosphere, showed an incredibly strong performance and ended up on the World Cup podium the very first time. After being in 16th place after run 1 he was able to bring down the fastest second run and climbed 13 ranks to the podium.
Always a highlight in the race calendar, especially when you stand with the athletes with the yellow skis! Kristoffer Jakobsen (SWE) broke through, was in the lead after the first run and nearly brought it home this day. A second place at the Ganslernhang is probably the greatest achievement of his career so far. But also Daniel Yule (SUI) showed once more, that he and the Hahnenkamm races are a great fit and ended up on rank 3. All in all the #fischerracefamily showed off an incomparable performance with six athletes in the top 15! What a performance.
The second strike of Raphael Haaser (AUT) led to his second podium of the season, another rank 2 in the Super G in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (GER). This result pushed him into the Super G overall podium and with ongoing solid performances he managed to stay on the 3rd place until the end of the season.
A record-breaking performance by Daniel Yule (SUI). With a performance that never had been seen before, the Swiss slalom specialist moved from a 30th rank after run 1 up to the first place to win the slalom in Chamonix (FRA). Of course he was able to take benefit from the detoriating course conditions but nevertheless the second run was a masterpiece. With this win Daniel Yule will be in the history books of ski racing forever.
The last highlight of the season was provided by Stefan Rogentin (SUI). The Swiss speed specialist clinched his first ever World Cup win in the Super G finals in Saalbach (AUT). With Bib No. 6 he was able to bring down a perfect run and was accompanied on the podium by two other Swiss skiers, Loic Meillard and Arnaud Boisset. What a way to end a solid season!
We mentioned it before, the third place in the Overall Super G Rankings for Raphael Haaser (AUT) is a proof for his consistent and strong season. With six Top 15 finishes in seven races, including four Top 10 finishes and two second ranks, he joined Marco Odermatt (SUI) and Vincent Kriechmayr (AUT) on the podium, closely followed by Stefan Rogentin (SUI). That is definitely a performance to build on, we're already looking forward to next season.
In addition to all the podium finishes, we had a solid team that scored points week after week. Some of them had certainly set their sights higher for this season, but some of them also achieved surprisingly strong results. Luca Aerni (SUI), AJ Ginnis (GRE), Stefan Brennsteiner (AUT), Elian Lehto (FIN), Fair Janutin (SUI), Billy Major (GBR), Sam Morse (USA) and Jett Seymour (USA) were always ready to finish in the points and create awareness for Fischer on the very highest level of performance.
Austrian slalom specialst Katharina Huber (AUT) had a solid season in the women's category with several Top 10 finishes and a 10th place in the overall slalom rankings. In one or two races, she was even more in a promising position, but in the end she still had the most successful season of her career to date. Neja Dvorak (SLO) also got stronger and stronger towards the end of the season and managed two Top 10 finishes with one 4th rank in the finals in Saalbach!
Also worth mentioning is Ricarda Haaser's (AUT) top 10 finish and Lisa Hörnblad's (SWE) comeback after a long injury break. Simone Wild (SUI) and Lara Della Mea (ITA) were able to sting in the results from throughout the season, and Charlie Guest (GBR) ended her career after a season full of ups and downs.
