As a warm-up for the Beijing Olympics, it does not get any tougher: the men’s World Cup downhill in Kitzbuehel, the most prestigious course on the circuit, but also widely regarded as the most testing.
Just weeks out from the Feb. 4-20 Winter Games, skiers will take to the thigh-trembling 3.3km-long Streif course on the Hahnenkamm mountain in the knowledge that nothing can be held back on a piste where the vertiginous start sees them reach 100kph in the first five seconds.
The 82nd running of the downhill, which made its debut in 1931, would see racers reaching motorway-coasting speeds of 140kph while negotiating sections that have an 85 percent gradient, meaning any thoughts about potential gold in Beijing are temporarily put on the back burner.
Photo: Reuters
The course falls, snakes and rolls, sending competitors barreling through a wide variety of terrain, in parts propelling them in the air, only for them to quickly re-align for icy traverses that severely test technical ability and mastery of well-honed equipment.
“This slope is so difficult, I always had to dig deep to get the best out of myself,” said retired Swiss racer Didier Cuche, who holds the record of five downhill wins on the mountain named after a rooster’s comb.
“I always had my back against the wall and needed to get everything right at the right moment,” he said.
Then into play comes the so-called “risk management”: how much a racer is able to push himself, much like a Formula One driver, in the knowledge that one slight error might mean hurtling into some of the 15km of nets and fencing down the course.
“On the Streif, the fine tuning has to be somewhere between 90 and 100 percent and adjusted to your own ability and what the hill allows,” argues Cuche.
“You can then move within this percentage range without exceeding the risk limit because as soon as you make a mistake, the race is over, or you fall — and that hurts,” he said.
There have been some gruesome crashes over the years. Sliding bodies, flailing skis and helicopter evacuations have become a regular feature and quickly silence the crowd.
COVID-19 restrictions mean a maximum of 1,000 spectators this year, a far cry from the 90,000 Kitzbuehel normally welcomes, a heady mix between champagne-drinking glitterati and young locals reveling in an alcohol-fueled rite of passage.
Their absence from the unashamedly voyeuristic spectacle would deprive all racers of the gladiatorial baying, the meek silence after a crash and the subsequent raucous applause should the crash victim be able to refind their footing.
“May this sports festival be held in an orderly and safe manner and distract us a little from everyday worries after spending almost two years in the clutches of the pandemic,” race committee chairman Michael Huber said.
After downhill training runs on Wednesday and yesterday, skiers are today to compete in a first downhill, before taking on a slalom tomorrow — when heavy snow is forecast, and a second downhill on Sunday.
“Kitzbuehel is the highlight of the year for us downhill skiers,” Austrian Vincent Kriechmayr, who won in Wengen last week, told ORF television.
“This is simply the most difficult descent of the whole year. The Streif is also a legendary route in other respects. You can’t leave anything to chance. You have to be in top shape there,” he said.
“I don’t know what’s in store for me at the Olympic Games, but Kitzbuehel is the downhill run that you want to win as an Austrian,” he added.
Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎) yesterday beat Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon in their women’s singles semi-final match to advance to today’s final at the Thailand Open. The top-seeded Tai overcame a 10-21 first-game loss to seventh seed and former world champion Ratchanok to dominate the final two games 21-13, 21-19 in 58 minutes of play at the Impact Arena in Bangkok. World No. 2 Tai is today to face world No. 4 Chen Yufei of China. Chen yesterday bested Pusarla Venkata Sindhu 21-17, 21-16 to secure her spot in the final of the Super 500 tournament. On Friday, Tai overpowered China’s He Bingjiao 21-10,
Wimbledon, widely regarded as the world’s most prestigious tennis tournament, was on Friday stripped of ranking points by the sport’s main tours in a move that threatens to reduce the Grand Slam to the status of a high-profile exhibition event. The decision by the ATP and WTA was in response to Wimbledon banning Russian and Belarusian players following the invasion of Ukraine. “It is with great regret and reluctance that we see no option but to remove ATP Ranking points from Wimbledon for 2022,” an ATP statement said. “Our rules and agreements exist in order to protect the rights of players as a
Defending champions Taichung Blue Whale thrashed Taoyuan Mars 6-0 in Taiwanese women’s soccer over the weekend, while Hualien City rolled on with their fourth win to sit atop the league table. While Thai fullback Pitsamai Sornsai partnered with compatriot goalkeeper Nattaruja Muthtanawech on defense, Japanese midfielder Maho Tanaka opened the scoring for Blue Whale in Saturday’s match, kicking a screamer on a volley from outside the penalty box — her first goal of the season. The match remained 1-0 heading into the break, although Taoyuan Mars striker Ho Chia-huan, a student at Hsing Wu High School in New Taipei City, had good
Faced with a machete, a fighter leaps and locks his legs around another man’s neck, bringing him crashing down to a cacophony of cheers. This is vovinam, Vietnam’s acrobatic martial art with roots dating back to the country’s struggle for independence, and it is showing at the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games for the first time since 2013. Proponents are trained to use not only their hands and legs to grapple a rival to the ground, but also fend off assailants armed with blades. Short for “Vo Viet Nam” (literally “Vietnamese martial arts”) it was inspired by nationalists who sought an end to the
RSS