Having won the last World Cup slalom in Courchevel on Dec. 21 by
nearly two seconds, Marlies Schild cruised to another dominant win
again in Semmering as she took a 1.20-second advantage into the
second run.
A time-robbing mistake just before the finish line of the first run
pushed Maria Riesch (the last woman to win a slalom here) to 17th.
But then Riesch saw the runway clear when Vonn fell in the first
run, allowing for full jets in the second run. Taking every possible
risk and making it look easy, Riesch came down with a two-second
advantage. There were 15 more racers to go. Though her lead was
whittled down some, Riesch was still in the leader’s box when Schild
appeared in the start house and the crowd went bananas.
Though she was more than two seconds slower than Riesch in the
second run, Schild stayed on her feet and performed a calculated
second run to win her third race of the season with 0.32 seconds to
spare.
“It’s my third victory now here, this is an amazing feeling,” said Schild,
who won World Cup GS and slalom races at Semmering in 2004.
“I wanted to win this race, I knew that I had a lot of advantage and I
had some really hard problems in the upper part so I just wanted to
ski down. It’s very special, it’s a great audience.”
Giving the already stacked German tech team an-
other reason to smile was the breakout performance
of Christina Geiger, who grabbed her first career
World Cup podium, 0.52 seconds back. The 20-
year-old junior world champion’s previous high came
in 2009 with eighth-place finishes in both Aspen and
Lienz. Geiger performed some second-run heroics
of her own, putting down the third-fastest second run
to jump from seventh in the first run.
Riesch’s second run was the fastest second run by
almost a full second (0.97) and was enough for her
49th career World Cup podium and the overall lead
on Vonn to 121 points. “After that first run I was really
disappointed to have made a big mistake,” Riesch
told reporters in the finish area. “I really dug in and
the effort I put in made things go like a dream. I never
thought I would pull it back and I am very proud of
and pleased with this second place.”
Just missing the podium was World Cup veteran Tanja Poutiainen
in fourth place, 0.63 seconds off the winning pace. It was her sixth
World Cup top-four finish of the season in tech events alone.
It was a painful day for the American team. After Vonn fell at the top
of the first run and Julia Mancuso, Resi Stiegler and Hailey Duke
failed to qualify for a second run, Sarah Schleper was the last Yank
standing. She charged to ninth place in the first run and really turned
it on in the second run, building a 0.27-second lead at the penultimate split when she skied off course and saw what could have been
her first World Cup podium in five years evaporate. Never a quitter,
Schelper hiked for what seemed like forever up to the missed gate
and finished at the bottom of the list in 28th, 24. 18 seconds behind
the winner.
“It’s very, very disappointing because [Schleper] would have been
on the podium easily today,” said Hoedlmoser. “She was here to race
and be on the podium and not just top 30 and that is how she skied
— fantastic. She shouldn’t be disappointed because she knows she
has the speed to be on the podium again.”
Disappointing seems to be a common word among Hoeldmoser and
U.S. women’s slalom skiing fans this season. After scoring sixth and
eighth-place results in the first two slaloms of the season, Vonn re-
corded two consecutive first-run DNFs starting in Courchevel. Save
a 21st-place result in Courchevel, Mancuso hasn’t seen a second
run since December 2008. Duke, who notched her career best fin-
ish in Semmering in 2008 with an eighth-place result, hasn’t finished
a World Cup sla-
lom in more than
a calendar year. If
you lump GS rac-
es in as well, the
U.S. had collect-
ed 17 DNQs and
7 DNFs versus
18 scoring results
on the season by
the time they left
Semmering.
Canadians Erin
Mielzynski and
Eve Routhier
notched scoring
results in 20th
and 23rd, respectively. The result
marked Mielzynski’s career high
in a World Cup
race. Brittany
Phelan, Narie-Michele Gagnon
and Anna Goodman all failed to qualify for the second run.
“I’m obviously happy about my race today since it’s my best result in a World Cup race,” said Mielzynski, who wore bib No. 50. “I
think it’s a good stepping stone for me and it is great for the confidence builder for the races to come because I know I can do
even better.”
Fans cheer on Kathrin Zettel
in Semmering.
Marlies Schild is pushed by a crowd of 14,000 in Semmering.
