ALPINE SKI. The alpine team event proved one more time that even if alpine skiing is an individual sport, the team spirit is alive! And as in the Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, Swtzerland was able to beat Austria in the big final. Italy took the third place thanks to a young and dynamic team.

16 nations participated in this 4th edition of the team event as a parallel race at the World Ski Championships, and so far, Switzerland had never claimed a medal in this event. But with athletes like Ramon Zenhaeusern and Wendy Holdener, who both already claimed individual victories in parallel events, Switzerland was unbeatable tonight. The pair was completed by Daniel Yule, the winner of the slalom in Madonna di Campiglio this year and Aline Danioth, the rising star in the Swiss tech team, with Sandro Simonet and Andrea Ellenberger as reserve racers. All six could collect their gold medal right after the race, and bring Switzerland to the top of the medal standings of these World Ski Championships at Åre 2019.

As in PyeongChang, Austria earned the silver medal, losing only against Switzerland in the big final. Marco Schwarz, who won the City Event in Oslo at the beginning of the year, Michael Matt, Katharina Liensberger and Katharina Truppe moved up the ranking beating successively Argentina, Slovakia and Italy. With Franziska Gritsch and Christian Hirschbühl as backup racers, the strong Austrian team was able to keep his winning streak of one medal per event on the men’s side in these World Ski Championships.

The fight for third place was a tight one between Italy and Germany. Young gun Lara Della Mea convinced by winning all her runs and with the help of Irene Curtoni, Simon Maurberger and Alex Vinatzer, the young and explosive Italian team managed to claim the bronze medal. The decision came down to the very last heat, where Alex Vinatzer DNFed but Linus Strasser straddled a gate higher up, giving the third place to the Italian team.

Tomorrow, all teams will enjoy a well-deserved day off, with no competition scheduled. From Thursday on, the teams will be back in racing mode with the four remaining medal events in giant slalom and slalom.

FIS alpine
12 Feb 2019