Junior world champion Hiltbrand has other goals: the ‘new Feuz’ will not appear at the start of the World Cup final

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The Simmentaler Livio Hiltbrand (20) is in many ways reminiscent of the Emmentaler downhill king Beat Feuz (37). Both prepared themselves for the ski circus with an internship as a bricklayer. And because Hiltbrand is only 1.70 meters tall, his crouching position is just as compact as the 1.72 meter short Kugelblitz showed until he retired last winter.

And Hiltbrand has hinted several times that he has a similar talent level to the Olympic and four-time downhill World Cup champion. Twelve months ago he was allowed to participate in the World Championship finals in Soldeu as junior world champion in Super-G. Although the slope in Andorra was heavily damaged when Hiltbrand started, the debutant from Därstetten finished 17th and left cracks like Stefan Rogentin from Graubünden (second in the Lauberhorn Super-G) or Romed Baumann (De, 2021 downhill vice world champion).

European Cup instead of World Cup final

Hiltbrand won the gold medal in the downhill at the World Junior Championships this season and would therefore be eligible to participate in the World Cup final again.

But the youngster from the western Bernese Oberland will not travel to Saalbach, but to the final European Cup flights, which will be held parallel to the World Cup finals in Norway. The reason: Hiltbrand is currently sixth in the European Cup downhill standings and could make it into the top 3 with a performance in the last race, which would mean a permanent spot for the next World Cup winter.

“For an athlete as young as Livio, a World Cup berth would be particularly important. This means that he does not experience any pressure to qualify during training and can calmly approach the routes that are new territory for him. That is why in his case we opted for the European Cup and against the World Cup final,” explains head coach Tom Stauffer.

Another Simmentaler is very close to securing a place in the World Cup: Lars Rösti (26) from St. Stephan starts the final race in Kvitfjell as leader of the European Cup descent. In the slalom, three fellow skiers, Tanguy Nef from Geneva (4th place with 205 points), Reto Schmidiger from Nidwalden (5, 203) and Matthias Iten from Zug (6, 180), can still hope for a place in the World Cup, especially in this. There are three competitions left in the division.

Source : Blick