Skiers find their feet in Garmisch

Didier Cuche races towards his first win of the season Keystone

Switzerland’s Alpine skiers are back in business after their worst start to a World Cup season in almost 30 years.

They restored some of the country’s pride with three podium finishes over the weekend.

The men’s team celebrated their first victory of the season when Didier Cuche won the downhill in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, on Friday.

Then Tobias Grünenfelder finished third in Sunday’s super-G on the notorious Kandahar run.

There was also success for the women’s team as Fränzi Aufdenblatten celebrated her first-ever podium finish. She came third in the downhill in the Austrian resort of Haus.

Dismal run

Prior to this weekend, the Swiss had only managed two podium places since the World Cup season got underway in November, prompting much soul-searching in the Swiss press.

The dismal run of performances was blamed variously on poor ski suit design, bad mental preparation and plain bad luck.

Shortly before Christmas, former Swiss skier Steve Locher and super-G specialist Didier Défago conducted a series of tests on this season’s ski suit and found it to be “uncompetitive” compared with previous models.

Decidedly ill at ease, the Swiss ski federation, Swiss-Ski, privately acknowledged that there was a problem with the suits. But that did not stop them from criticising the team and their coaches.

Kit blamed

Since switching back to last season’s kit, the team’s results – and morale – have certainly picked up.

Three other Swiss skiers, Bruno Kernen, Ambrosi Hoffmann and Paul Accola, also figured among the top ten in Friday’s downhill race in Garmisch.

Défago also celebrated a season’s best, finishing fourth in Saturday’s downhill in the same resort.

The main winners of the weekend were, once again, the Austrian skiers. Stephan Eberharter won Saturday’s downhill race, and Hermann Maier, who was sidelined for 18 months after a motorcycle accident nearly cost him a leg, came first in the super-G.

swissinfo

Key facts

Cuche’s victory, ahead of Daron Rahlves of the United States and Austria’s Stephan Eberharter, was Switzerland’s first in this year’s World Cup competition.
Tobias Grünenfelder’s third place came as a surprise as his best result this year prior to Sunday was 13th place.

Fränzi Aufdenblatten celebrated her first-ever podium finish, coming third in the women’s downhill in Haus.
The Swiss men’s team had to wait until the 21st race of the season (out of 40) for their first podium place of the season: Ambrosi Hoffmann’s third place at last week’s Hahnenkamm in Kitzbühel, Austria.