Borrowed, broken, stolen!: The biggest ball dramas in World Cup history

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It’s finished! After the overall World Cup hat-trick, Marco Odermatt also won the small giant slalom ball for the third time in a row. Last year, the Lake Lucerne athlete of the century misused a crystal ball to such an extent that he outright demoralized his Norwegian opponent Henrik Kristoffersen. “After my overall victory in the Super-G classification, my sponsor Red Bull organized a party in Andorra to which Henrik was also invited,” Odermatt reveals and tells the whole story: “At one point I came up with the idea that you have the hollow . The inside of the crystal ball should be filled with champagne. Polite as I am, I naturally offered Henrik a sip of the ball. But he refused while I took several long sips that evening. That’s probably why Kristoffersen believed that I wouldn’t be able to compete for victory in the giant slalom two days later. He was accordingly dejected when I was two seconds faster than him…”

Accola’s biggest coup was stolen at the Crystal Bar!

While Odermatt displays his trophies in his childhood room, Paul Accola has entrusted the large ball that the Graubünden native received for his overall World Cup victory in the 1991/92 season to the landlord of the Hotel Crystal in Davos. Until April 12, 2011, the crystal in the hotel bar radiated a lot of shine. But then a thief caused trouble at the three-star hotel. “When I closed the bar at midnight the bullet was still there, but the next morning it was gone. I immediately alerted the police, but they could not find any trace,” said then landlord Franz Wallner in Blick. Wallner obviously wanted to submit an application to the FIS to make a new ball the same day. But Accola initially showed no interest in a copy: “I have the memories of the bullet in my head, no one can steal them from me.” Naturally, the International Ski Association gave the now 57-year-old a replacement ball, which is now in a display case in the Davos Winter Sports Museum.

The sloppy genius Miller

The glassblowers also had to work an extra shift for Bode Miller (46). Why? After winning the overall World Cup in the winter of 2004/05, the ski hippie from the USA carelessly put the twelve kilo ball in his suitcase before flying home. Therefore, after collecting the luggage at home, Miller only had a pile of broken pieces in his hands. The scrappy ski genius from New Hampshire had to beg the FIS for a copy two years earlier. Reason: After the 2003 World Cup, Miller left one of his two gold medals in the toilet.

Zurbriggen borrowed a bullet from his arch-rival

The crystal trophies had a very special influence on the interpersonal relationships between Pirmin Zurbriggen (61) and Marc Girardelli (60). The Valaisian and the Austrian, who competes for Luxembourg, fought numerous fierce duels for the final victory at the World Cup, and their relationship was poisoned off the slopes for a long time. In the summer of 1987, four-time World Cup winner Zurbriggen, accompanied by his loved ones, stayed in Vorarlberg at the hotel of five-time overall World Cup winner Girardelli. “Gira” starts laughing heartily when he thinks back to that day: “I initially felt completely honored when the Zurbriggen family came to have lunch with me. For dessert, I discovered the real reason for this surprising winner’s visit: Pirmin had a photo shoot with his then outfitter, the Vorarlberg ski company Kästle. And because he had forgotten the big crystal ball in Valais, he had to borrow a ball from me for this shoot.” Since that day, the former intimate enemies loved each other very much.

Source : Blick