For the third time in the 53 years of existence of the AIJS, two racers have been elected ‘Skieur d’Or AIJS- Serge Lang Trophy in October 2015 following a three-week-long vote by members of the International Association of the Ski Journalists.

After 1964 when both Marielle and Christine Goitschel, Olympic gold and silver medal winners at Innsbruck, receive the AIJS trophy and 1990 – winners were Petra Kronberger and Pirmin Zurbriggen - the voting members of our association strongly supported Austrian Anna Fenninger and Marcel Hirscher to receive this year’s award at Soelden in occasion of Milka’s Ski Girls party held at the Hotel Bergland on Oct.22nd.

The two defending overall World Cup Champions and multiple gold medals winners shared the exact same number of nominations at the end of the vote which closed on Monday evening of Oct. 19th. A total of 16 racers where named by the voters, veteran Benjamin Raich being a strong 3rd in the pool.

In fact, Anna and Marcel were awarded 2/3 of the votes sent during the past month by 85 % of the members who paid tribute to their great successes celebrated during the past season - and they surely also acknowledged their strong impact on modern alpine ski racing. “At some occasions, the two skiers reached an amazing level of excellence during that exciting past season - and both helped us putting together great reports in some very special moments,” said AIJS Vice-President Patrick Lang in charge of the ‘Skieur d’Or’ for over fifteen years now.

“They always fought hard under intense pressure,” Lang added. “I was particularly impressed by some of their unexpected triumphs achieved in very tense conditions – like when Marcel clinched that superb gold medal in Alpine Combined at Beaver Creek after a remarkable downhill leg, or when Anna captured the combined at Bansko ahead of top favorite Tina Maze – it has certainly been a turning point in her battle for that second consecutive victory in the overall standings. Their determination during the World Cup Finals was pretty impressive too! They both behaved as true role models in those moments.”

Interestingly enough, the two champions grew up in the same region nearby Salzburg and know each other for a long time as they often competed together in the local children races. Anna, who grabbed her first gold medal in combined at Garmisch-Partenkirchen in February 2011 went on to become an excellent giant slalom and speed specialist and added three more gold medals to her collection at Sochi (Super-G) and Beaver Creek (Super-G and giant slalom). The 26-year-old is aiming for a third overall World Cup win this winter. Marcel (also 26) has been for several years now a dominating force in the technical specialties with a total of 31 victories. Last winter he became the first champion to capture a fourth consecutive overall World Cup title at the end of a tough fight with Kjetil Jansrud.

Both already received the “AIJS Skieur d’Or-Serge Lang Trophy” in their career - Marcel in 2012 and Anna last year!

FIS news
22 October 2015 21:05