After the early death of his father: Crowdfunding saved von Allmen’s career

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The mood in Garmisch changed completely within 24 hours. While the nerves were already frayed during the inspection for the Super-G on Saturday due to the completely softened slope, most of those involved look extremely satisfied for the second Super-G on the Kandahar. “It was clear to me when I looked at the second gate that this was going to be a great race,” says Marco Odermatt. Because the night from Saturday to Sunday was crystal clear and the track workers did an excellent job, the track is wonderfully compact.

Similar to Bode Miller

And under these circumstances, Odermatt proves once again that he is the best ski racer today. After fourth place the day before, the man from Nidwalden achieved his 33rd World Cup victory and was thus level with American Alpine monument Bode Miller on the all-time rankings. With this victory, the 26-year-old also took the preliminary decision in the battle for the small and large balls. In the overall Super-G standings, Odermatt is 121 points ahead of Austrian Vincent Kriechmayr with two races to go. In the overall World Cup, the defending champion’s lead over Cyprien Sarrazin is 722 points.

What also plays into Odermatt’s hands is the fact that the Frenchman will not be able to use his home advantage in Chamonix next week because the two runs at the foot of Mont Blanc were canceled due to a lack of snow. “This cancellation is certainly not annoying for me after the very stressful past weeks, because it means that I will get a break next week. Without the cancellation of Chamonix I would have skipped the giant slalom in Bansko. But because of the new program I will probably fly to Bulgaria the following week.”

Von Allmen’s moving story

But Odermatt is not the only Swiss who leaves Garmisch in a particularly good mood. Bernese Oberlander Franjo von Allmen had the best day of his young career in Upper Bavaria – the 22-year-old reached the World Cup podium for the first time in third place. And that in only his twelfth World Cup race. The trained carpenter has anything but a good feeling during his journey. “Until I looked at the time board, I thought my ride really sucked, way too wild. But of course it went quickly,” says Von Allmen, beaming from ear to ear. But even in this particularly beautiful hour, the Boltiger is reminded of the saddest moment of his life.

“Franjo skis brilliantly”

Franjo was 17 when his father died. “The continuation of my racing career was in jeopardy at that moment,” FvA recalls. The continuation of Franjo’s skiing career was also in jeopardy at this time for financial reasons. «But then the idea of ​​launching crowdfunding occurred to me. This raised so much money that I was able to finance another season. And after this season I was included in the Swiss ski team.”

Von Allmen’s development also causes great enthusiasm for superstar Odermatt: “Franjo skis brilliantly. I’m sure we’ll see him on stage very, very, very often in the future.” Especially since von Allmen has been trained by Odermatt’s shared partner Gabriel Gwerder since last spring – the Schwyzer is responsible for the strength and conditioning training of the youngster, and former World Cup downhill skier Vitus Lüönd coaches von Allmen on the ski slopes.

Source : Blick