ALPINE SKI. SCHLADMING, Austria – Team spirit took a few unexpected turns in the 2012 World Cup Finals Nations Team event on Friday. Much to the utter joy of the thousands of spectators, it was Austria who surged ahead for the win in the parallel format event, conquering Switzerland in the Big Final.

Nine Teams took to the red and blue courses – the blue being the faster one – under the blazing sun and 16-degree temperatures in Schladming. Norway was the first to get knocked out of the contest, then Austria took down the Czech Republic in the quarter finals, the United States took down France, Switzerland took down Germany – although Germany put up a good fight – and Sweden took down Italy.

By the semi-finals, things were really heating up as Austria took on the U.S. and both teams of four racers notched two wins each – Julia Mancuso handily beat Eva-Maria Brem, Nolan Kasper took down Marcel Mathis but Michaela Kirchgasser beat Resi Stiegler and Philipp Schoerghofer surged ahead of Tim Jitloff. Collectively, the Austrians were faster, since per the Team Event rules, the best lady’s time and best man’s time from each team is combined in the case of a 2-2 scoring heat. In this case, Kirchgasser and Schoerghofer’s time was 39.34 and Mancuso’s and Kasper’s 39.40.

In the other semi final, Switzerland and Sweden also went 2-2, with Lara Gut sliding out and apparently hurting her back in her run. Wendy Holdener and Markus Vogel saved the day, however, as their added fast times (39.81) were faster than Andre Myhrer’s and Mattias Hargin’s (40.07).

The final rounds brought a significant amount of drama, however, as in the small final, U.S. racer Resi Stiegler – who less than two weeks ago landed the first podium of her turbulent and injury-laden World Cup career, crashed while on course against Sweden’s Therese Borssen. Stiegler remained on the snow and was carried off by medical staff. She will fly back to Colorado on Saturday to have her left knee examined.

“This whole thing is just all about team morality, enjoying skiing and having fun. You don’t want to risk everything and risk injury,” said Mancuso, who won this season’s World Cup parallel event in Moscow and won all of her runs on Friday. “It’s just a really, really unfortunate bummer.”

Sweden – winning three of four rounds against the U.S. – thus went on to win the Small Final and take third place. In the press conference, Myhrer made a point to wish Stiegler all the best from the Swedish team.

In the Big Final, Holdener – who like Mancuso, won all of her runs throughout the event – was the only racer for Team Switzerland to win her run, as Gut opted not to start because of back pain. Mathis took Vogel down and in the last run of the day, Schoergohofer pulled ahead of Sylvan Zurbriggen and threw his skis sideways for a little showboating at the finish line to please the enthusiastic crowd.

“It’s great to win this event in front of the home crowd,” Schoerghofer said. “We feel proud as a team to be able to do this.”

Holdener was also happy – and surprised – with her team’s performance.

“I [wouldn’t have] believed it if someone [told] me this morning that we [would] get second place today,” she said. “I just tried to fight. It’s really nice.”

Of the men, Kasper posted the fastest run of 19.01 seconds and Borssen was the fastest woman of the day, posting a run of 19.76 seconds.

An update on Stiegler’s status will be posted as soon as it’s available.

The 2012 Audi FIS World Cup Finals continue in Schladming with men’s giant slalom and ladies slalom Saturday, men’s slalom and ladies GS Sunday.

by Shauna Farnell
FISalpine.com
Friday 16 March 2012

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