After three failures in the first round, Loc Meillard could no longer judge Switzerland’s decision. Faivre unexpectedly wins.
Exhausted and disappointed: Loïc Meillard at the finish line after his second round, in which he was the only Swiss national.
Photo: Giovanni Oletta (Keystone / AP Photo)
After all, someone on the stage speaks Swiss German. Far left, Luca de Alebrandini, an Italian from South Tyrol, in a sky-blue suit, accepts his medal and hangs it. He won the silver in Giant Slalom and has never been on the podium before. “It’s unbelievable,” he says.
For the 30-year-old, it’s the most magical moment of his career. Michel Jezzine stands in the finish area and cheers him on, as she is De Alebrandini’s partner, and there is no longer a Swiss contact at the medal ceremony. About five hours earlier, Marco Odermatt said, “This is the blackest day in my professional life.”
The Swiss will face defeat on Friday in the race in which they have scored more goals. “If you look at the training courses, there should be three of us on the stage,” says Odermat. Disappointed by a third of the Swiss quartet in the group, Odermatt was eliminated, as were Gino Caviezel and Justin Morizier.
Second Gold by Faivre, Bitterness for Pinturault
Still Loïc Meillard, the fit man who should have won gold in parallel races, was super strong all day. He finally failed due to the regulations, but won a bronze medal. Now he also has to say: “The best is at the top, they deserve it.”
He himself is not one of them this time, next to De Aliprandini Marco Schwartz and world champion Matteo Vever, this time he clearly moved more than after the gold medal in the parallel race, as he has not yet been able to classify whether this title was and what it means to him. The race was bitter for fellow Pfeiffer Alexis Pintorault. Crown Favorite as the captain was eliminated after the first half in Decision after a few goals.
The defeat of the Swiss national team in the most stupid moment
Millard is fifth on this spring-like evening, and the result was a disappointment for the group. The bitter defeat of the Swiss national team comes at the most stupid moment, when not many expect it. And then, when it was totally impossible, on the hottest days of winter, when it came to medals and not points at the World Cup.
At least one Swiss has climbed the podium in every giant slalom race this season. Now there is confusion, disappointment and anger. “A World Cup to be forgotten,” says Caviezel. The results of the Swiss men are sober, the big stories are written by the women so far, they’ve won six medals out of nine, and the bronze medals remain from Millard and Pete Fuse for men.
Slalom racing as a last chance
Millard and Odermatt are still young, and this setback could be beneficial for Naidwalden in particular, better than he might think after these two weeks in Cortina. For him, things went so sharply at the World Cup that at one point he was disappointed.
Millard has a chance to win a third medal in the slalom race on Sunday. And to save the men’s balance sheet almost single-handedly. (the master)
That’s it from our live tape. Thanks for reading and see you soon.
The favorite is eliminated after only several goals! What bitterness.
Faivre wins, De Alinprandini is second and Black completes the podium.
Loc Meillard was unable to judge Switzerland in the second round. After the morning defeat by three failures (Odermat, Mauricier, Caviezel), Valais missed the World Cup medal – still fifth in the first half. He is the fifth.
Life partner Michelle Giesen makes her close. He can’t get close to Faivre, but with 63 hundredth behind he is in second place ahead of Black. The Italian is sure to win a medal. Pure joy from him in the finish area.
Too bad for the Germans! Schmid makes one mistake and is liquidated. From a dream of a medal. Two other athletes, Millard are currently fourth.
Faivre does much better at that. The Frenchman is now at the top by 87 per cent.
Now, our only hope: Loïc Meillard.
Oh no, what a shame! It doesn’t start out optimally, with some tricky clips and slides in it. Valais can no longer make up for it and run past the finish line by nine-tenths. Medium rank only 3. Shame. No medal for Switzerland.
Photo: Jean-Christophe Bout (Keystone)
The next Austrian. Slalom specialist Schwartz does it well, starts well and runs to eight-tenths. In the end, he took the lead with 72 hundredths of a second.
We have reached the top seven athletes – but the first is eliminated. The race for Brensteiner is over.
A changeable ride from Kranjec. Sometimes it progresses, then lags, and then it turns up again. In the end, however, that wasn’t enough, as he was just 24 hundred behind in second place.
The only American in the field. Radamus no longer drives as convincingly as in the first round and is relegated to intermediate 6th place.
Four more drivers, then Millard comes.
Germans couldn’t avoid Zubcic. Second place, behind four tenths.
This guy didn’t live up to expectations. Zubcic already has four mega crowning spots this season. Is the Croatian now catching up and making his way up the rankings?
He has a second in reserve and then finally pushed Zamba off the podium. Zubcic now leads the standings by 89 hundred. But: it was not a massive attack.
Oh, she gets stuck and falls and then cuts some nets and billboards. Hopefully Favrot didn’t hurt.
It’s now released from the net, and it looks like it has got entangled in it. Thankfully, he doesn’t seem infected.
Finally, shake your head. The Austrian was losing a lot of time in Zamba, whose running became more and more valuable. The third intermediate place for Leitinger.
Even the Italian, who knows this slope a little better, could not avoid Adam Zamba. It got just a few slides and at the end it was nearly a second late.
We can actually see defending champion Kristofferson bowing around the gates. It is not his season. How is he here in the second round? Starts at 84 percent of reserves.
But this is not enough. 5 hundred succeeds leader Adam Zamba.
Samu Torsti reaches the finish line, but on the way he collects 1.60 seconds. Average rank 4.
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