Not just Nef

Rey-Bellet, Nef and Kummer will all be hoping to shine in Salt Lake Keystone Archive

While Sonja Nef remains one of Switzerland's strongest medal hopes at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, the rest of the country's skiers are starting to prove that they are more than a one-woman team.

At the start of this season, new Swiss women’s coach Angelo Maina said he aimed to widen the breadth of talent in the team. With five World Cup victories since then from four different skiers, Maina’s mission is well under way.

“Sonja Nef was obviously already doing well last season, but I think every other member of the team has progressed well this winter,” Maina told swissinfo.”

Nef has provided two of the five Swiss victories this season with giant slalom wins in Val d’Isere and Maribor. But Sylviane Berthod’s downhill triumph in St Moritz, Lillian Kummer’s giant slalom success in Lienz and Marlies Oester’s wholly unexpected slalom victory in Berchtesgaden have raised plenty of eyebrows. But not Maina’s, it seems.

“I’m not surprised by this season’s good results,” the women’s coach told swissinfo. “I already knew how strong the set-up here was from my previous stint as Swiss women’s head coach (from 1993 to 1996) and also from what I’d seen of the team during summer training.”

Maina is now urging his team to go all out for Olympic success, and for him that means podium places.

“Coming sixth or seventh isn’t important to me,” he insists. “In Salt Lake City it’s difficult to say that we can definitely have good results but I’m just hoping all the skiers can try their best to get a medal.”

Hat-trick for Nef?

An Olympic gold medal in the giant slalom would complete an impressive hat-trick in the discipline for Nef, who will arrive in Salt Lake City on February 12 as the reigning world champion and defending World Cup title holder.

In this season’s World Cup standings, however, Nef has a lead of just 20 points over Austria’s Michaela Dorfmeister. Besides, the Olympics have often thrown up some nasty surprises for apparent favourites.

“I think Sonja is clearly the best racer in the giant slalom, but anything is possible in the Olympics,” says Maina. “Hopefully, Sonja won’t have any problem with nerves and will just be able to ski as well as we know she can.”

Nef could face some stiff competition from some of her own compatriots in Salt Lake with Kummer emerging as a possible threat in the giant slalom and Oester hoping to spring another surprise in the slalom.

In the downhill, Berthod appears to be peaking at just the right moment. Missing out on a place at the Nagano Games by just two hundredths of a second, the 24-year-old now appears to be in contention for a medal after her December victory in St Moritz – the first of her career.

Having apparently recovered from the back pains that threatened to force her out of this month’s Games, experienced speed specialist Corinne Rey-Bellet should also add some bite to the Swiss attack on Salt Lake.

History of surprises

The history books suggest though that a Swiss medal could come from almost anyone on the women’s team, with former stars Renée Colliard, Marie-Thérèse Nadig and Michela Figini having all upset big favourites in the past.

Nadig won gold in the 1972 women’s downhill, having never won a World Cup race before the Olympic Games, while Figini achieved the same feat 12 years later after winning her first race just two weeks previously.

Colliard provided perhaps the biggest shock of them all however, taking gold in the 1956 slalom during her first ever appearance for the Swiss team.

The coach of the current Swiss team is not so sure though that a similar phenomenon could take place nowadays.

“We’ve seen a lot of good progress made by the rest of the women on the team like Corina Grünenfelder and youngsters such as Fränzi Aufdenblatten, and I think they can improve even more,” reckons Maina. “But I don’t think we’ll see any major surprises at this year’s Games.

“I think the women who are the best in the world right now are the ones who are at the top of the World Cup rankings and I’m sure it will be those women who will be taking the top places in Salt Lake City.”

Having coached the Swiss women’s team at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Maina knows all about favourites realising their potential.

Lillehammer was the setting for three tremendous performances by Swiss legend Vreni Schneider, who won gold in the Olympic slalom, silver in the combined event and a bronze in the giant slalom.

Even with their rediscovered strength in depth, a three-medal haul may be beyond the reach of the Swiss women this month. Having failed to win a single medal in Nagano four years ago, though, the Swiss team seem more than ready to make a podium or two in Salt Lake City.

by Mark Ledsom