Ski Racing - December 27, 2011

Mitja Valencic and Mario Matt, both perhaps concerned more with a good finish than the podium, skied strong, safe runs. Patrick Thaler then put in a brilliant run to take the lead, but lost half his first-run margin in doing so.

At the top of the hill, Kostelic was laying in the snow with flakes landing on his eyelids. He knew what to expect and knew how he wanted to go about his run.

Felix Neureuther skied solidly to the lead, joyous enough to mimic a hockey slapshot for the crowd and let out a “wahoo.” Myhrer took the chances and survived to gain the lead. Manfred Moelgg exited, projected off course after getting behind a rut. Pranger finished several tenths off Myhrer’s time and DeVille, full of confidence for perhaps the first time in his career, skied within two hundredths of Myhrer. Then it was time for Kostelic. “I did not know the times of the others when I started,” he said. “I just focused on my run.” He said he tried to stay relaxed and, “... I tried not to attack too much, just wanted to ski smooth.” He worked with the ruts on the steep upper portion of the course, fired through the flushes and remained steadily over his skis. His 0.35 margin slipped only minisculy to 0.33 and then 0.32 before the final pitch. There he carefully picked his way through the trickiest part of the course set. At the end, he was 0.07 ahead for his 20th Cup win, his 13th in slalom and his second of the season. “I don’t remember when was the last time that the three guys at the top were separated by nine hundreds of a second,” Kostelic said. “It was an amazing race, especially for the spectators. Just two days ago I was really disappointed and sad about how things went in Alta Badia. I was just 17 hundredths away from second place and was fifth. But one of my friends once said — the wheel of fortune is turning, sometimes you are down sometimes you are up. I think today there was a little bit of luck for me as well.”