ALPINE SKI WORLD CUP. COURCHEVEL, France – If there were a prize for making it look easy to navigate one very difficult slalom course set and a second one that was also relatively challenging, Marlies Schild would get it, hands down. As it is, the Austrian put her stamp on the first World Cup race to land in Courchevel, France, in more than 30 years and, while perhaps not making it look easy, did a smoother and speedier job of it than anyone else.

Austria's Marlies Schild, center, winner of an alpine ski World cup women's slalom, celebrates with second placed Tanja Poutiainen, of Finland, left, and third placed Tina Maze, of Slovenia, at the finish area, in Courchevel, France, Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2010. (AP Photo/Giovanni Auletta)

Schild finished the first run – set by Croatian Zoran Sobol – 0.11 seconds slower than Tanja Poutianen but rocketed down the second set by Finland’s Christian Thoma building speed around every gate to win 0.78 seconds over Poutiainen, 1.98 over Tina Maze and a whopping 2.25 seconds or more over the rest of the field.

Schild launched into her second run and was immediately more than a second and a half ahead at the first split, more than two seconds ahead at the second, was thundering toward the finish when she had a rough bobble that she quickly recovered from and finished with a canyon of a gap between herself and the others. She said she could think of no better Christmas present than going home for the holidays with another victory in the bag.

“It’s great. I tried to ski really fast and I was close [to] falling out but I fought and it’s an amazing feeling to be on top of the podium today,” Schild said right after the race. “I had a mistake in the flat part but I always tried to make speed. I thought when I crossed the finish line that I’m ahead, but when I saw it was nearly two seconds, it was amazing.”

It is Schild’s second victory of the season. She won the slalom opener in Levi but straddled an early gate in Aspen. She has also added GS back to her repertoire; she DNFed in Aspen, but skied to 12th a few days ago in St. Moritz.

Tuesday was a high energy spectacle at the swanky resort in the Savoie French Alps. Mobs of spectators lined the course, Brazilian dancers twirled, drums kept the soundtrack romping and stunt planes roared overhead, doing flips and spins as several top racers – 23 competitors in total – were summarily eliminated in the tightly set first run course. Even French slalom star Julien Lizeroux, who was forerunning the course, crashed during his run.

“It was a very challenging course set, It was meant to take people out,” said Lindsey Vonn, who hooked a gate right after the first split in the first run and lost a ski. “It’s not very fun to ski and I don’t think it’s very fun to watch. But people set challenging courses and as an athlete, it’s my job to do the best I can. I just made a mistake today and that happens in slalom.”

Lack of rhythm is what heavily characterized the first run.

“It’s off set rhythm, a lot of very, very tight combinations, combinations into combinations, combinations and then under gates and then combinations again,” Vonn said. “It’s a lot of strange things.”

Sobol said he wanted to set a difficult course since the slope itself posed few challenges to the racers. Courchevel as a whole seemed to be on everybody’s ‘A’ list.

“The town is great. There are a ton of people here, they’re cheering loudly for every racer. I actually love the hill, it’s perfect for slalom,” Vonn said. “I’m sad that I didn’t finish because I would have liked to do two runs here. I think I got a little lucky because Maria went out today as well.”

Maria Riesch was ahead at the first split in the first run but straddled a gate – a similar story of 22 other competitors in the first run, including France’s Claire Dautherives, who, wearing bib No. 41 had the throng of thousands in a happy fit as she was only a couple tenths behind at the second split until she crashed and limped away with an apparent leg injury.

The second run only saw one DNF and that was local favorite Sandrine Aubert. The time gaps were sizeable long before Schild touched down. Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener, the fourth woman on course in the second run, held a lead for several racers until replaced by giant slalom champion Kathrin Hoelzl and immediately after another of the Schild family sunk her claws in. Marlies’ younger sister Bernadette also had a race to remember Tuesday, finishing more than a half of a second in the lead and holding onto it until the last group of racers to finish seventh in the end, her best result to date on the World Cup. Nicole Hosp replaced her in the leader’s box but then Sweden’s Marie Pietilae-Holmner, who won the previous slalom in Aspen – stepped in.

When it was all said and done, Pietilae Holmner finished fourth, 2.25 seconds off the pace, followed 0.01 later by Kathrin Zettel, who may have been on the podium if not for a big hiccup in the flats as Hosp came in sixth. Easily the local hero of the day, Nastasia Noens elicited the loudest cheers from the masses, taking third in the first run and ending up seventh ninth, one of her top career results on the World Cup.

The women’s World Cup takes a short holiday break before recommencing again in Semmering, Austria with more technical racing – a GS on 28 Dec and night slalom on the 29th.

by Shauna Farnell
FISalpine.com
Tuesday 21 December 2010