Odermatt and Gut-Behrami – the unequal protagonists

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Winter 2022/23 is history. Time to look back on beautiful, strange, funny and bad moments. movie out!

2 gold medals at the World Championships, 13 World Cup victories this season, 25 podiums in 30 races and a new World Cup points record (2042) – Marco Odermatt has been riding into a new alpine dimension in the past five months!

Pains? Sofia Goggia fades them. In St. Moritz, she breaks two bones in her left hand during the descent. She drives to Milan by car, has surgery in the evening, returns to the Engadine at night and wins the Super-G. “The hand is no longer broken, it has recovered,” she says succinctly. There is a trace of blood on the bandage on her hand.

The otherwise persistent Swiss ski trainer Manfred Widauer cried uncontrollably at noon on December 21. Reason: His protégé Beat Feuz announced he would end his career after the downhill classics. The farewell tour of “Kugelblitz” ends in Hollywood style. On the Lauberhorn, the downhill king from the Emmental thundered into the top 5 again. After his dernière on the “Streif”, the 36-year-old was even applauded by the Austrians! The four-time downhill ball winner has really earned his ski pension – Feuz (16 individual World Cup victories) is the only skier in Swiss ski history to have won all major titles in the highest discipline (World Champion, Olympic Champion, Lauberhorn and Kitzbühel Triumphator).

Michelle Gisin has been skiing at Rossignol for 14 years. With the French slats on her feet, she celebrates all her successes, including two Olympic gold medals in combination. Last summer, Gisin dared to make the switch: from red to blue, from Rossignol to Salomon. “It could be that nothing fits together next year,” she says. Is it a premonition? The fact is: Gisin is the only woman to drive all races, but she never makes it to the podium – not even at the World Championships. She is almost desperate at times, but takes the blame. The fact remains: from a sporting point of view, the brand change was a mistake.

After a cruciate ligament rupture in January 2021 and a pelvic fracture in January 2022, Urs Kryenbühl is back in impressive fashion on December 29 – the Schwyzer finishes sixth on the brutally selective “Stelvio” in Bormio. However, the joy only lasts for almost 24 hours. In the Super-G, the 28-year-old suffered a blow to the knee after a few seconds of driving. The Devastating Diagnosis: Cruciate Ligament Rupture, Six Months Compulsive Rupture!

15 times second, 15 times third, but not once first: Wendy Holdener suffers in slalom because of her insane winless record. But on November 27, 2022, she dispelled all her worries and won for the first time in Killington (USA). “It’s a rescue. Finally, it’s not being asked anymore,” she says.

The Austrian three-time Olympic champion Matthias Mayer (32) is in good shape at the start of the season. Third in the Super-G in Lake Louise, third in the downhill in Val Gardena. The Carinthian also set the third best time during training for the descent in Bormio. But on the day of the race, the “Mothl” caused a sensation, not with another “podium finish”, but with an interview on ORF. “I just decided to end my career during the professional examination!” However, it is not excluded that Mayer will make his comeback next winter.

On February 8, Marta Bassino wins gold at the World Championship in Super-G. pure joy? Initially yes. But soon she receives sad news: her former teammate Elena Fanchini has passed away. At the age of 37, the number two of the 2005 World Cup succumbed to cancer. The dismay is great, the next day you see several crying female riders inspecting the descent. Bassino suffers another fateful blow three weeks later when her brother Matteo’s wife is found motionless in bed – she too is dead.

The Hahnenkamm week started badly for Aleksander Aamodt Kilde. The Norwegian breaks his hand during training. The day after, the friend of US ski queen Mikaela Shiffrin is still on track for the top 3 until the shot on target. Then comes the shock: when jumping out of the traverse, the Viking almost hits the billboard with the outer ski at 120 km/h. At the last moment, he can avert catastrophe. “It was a near-death experience,” said the overall World Cup winner of the 2019/20 season afterwards. The happy ending in this horror film is for Kilde with victory in the second descent on the «Streif». With six victories in ten descents, the man from the Oslo region secured himself in the highest discipline of the crystal ball.

Once she misses the medal by nine, then by four hundredths: against all odds, Lara Gut-Behrami comes away empty-handed at the World Championships. “It was a shitty two weeks,” she says. Not anymore. A few days later, she talks about her disappointment via a video call and says she wants to keep driving until 2025. The season ends on a happy note for the Ticino: she wins the last Super-G of the winter at Soldeu and secures the fourth discipline crystal ball of her career.

12 months ago, Ramon Zenhäusler was, as he himself says, “devastated!” The reason: the double meter from Oberwallis dropped to 25th place in the slalom world ranking after a shoulder injury and material problems and was therefore also thrown out of the national team. But this winter the 2.02m giant has made a great comeback with victories in Chamonix and Soldeu.

She started ski racing because then there were sausages with ketchup: Jasmine Flury. It was worth it. The Graubünden native of Davos Monstein became the sensational downhill world champion on February 11. “I can hardly believe it,” she says. Flury cheers and celebrates, she goes to bed late. And shortly after midnight she becomes an aunt for the third time – her sister and the child are doing well.

After two mediocre winters, Daniel Yule has found his way back to success – the man from Lower Valais triumphed gloriously in the slaloms in Kitzbühel and Madonna di Campiglio. But Yule is also making people sit up and pay attention to his criticism of the FIS president. As Johan Eliasch thinks aloud about World Cup races in Saudi Arabia, Yule says: “I can hardly believe that such a smart person and successful entrepreneur as Eliasch comes up with such stupid ideas. When the day comes when races in Saudi Arabia or Dubai on the World Cup calendar, then I will immediately announce my retirement!”

Hardly any Swiss woman exudes as much pleasure in skiing as Aline Danioth. But at the beginning of March, the World Cup sixth in the slalom was brutally thrown back. Danioth suffers a cruciate ligament rupture during a European Cup giant slalom – it’s her fourth. She writes on Instagram about a “nightmare”. Whether the 25-year-old will return to top sport is an open question.

With his historic string of successes, Odermatt surpasses all others. Loïc Meillard in particular delivered some achievements that would have gone down in Swiss ski history as highlights in almost any other winter. The Valais triumphed over the night giants in Schladming. The 26-year-old’s versatility is impressive, as he’s been the only one to stand on the podium in Super-G, giant slalom and giant slalom this season. Meillard also won silver in the giant slalom at the World Championships behind Odermatt. Cheers, Loic!

Mikaela Shiffrin is the leading lady of winter in the women’s circus. She collects victory after victory, bullet after bullet. And with her 88th World Cup win, she surpassed Ingemar Stenmark’s all-time record (86 wins). After her latest triumph, she is interviewed by Kilde in Soldeu – and she bursts out laughing. He asks what it takes to keep racing at this level. Shiffrin: “We can discuss that in private later.”

Source : Blick