The scream was tough too. It vibrated lonely through the Zagreb evening, and it did not make up for the lack of spectators who usually spread rock concert atmosphere on the Bärenberg, the local mountain of the Croatian capital, when the alpine slalom runners are guests there. But this scream, which the Munich ski racer Linus Straßer sent on Wednesday evening in the Croatian night, was at least adequate compensation for the bleak, pandemic-related backdrop. Then the author’s tears came.
The current winter had not exactly started well for the alpines of the German Ski Association (DSV): Viktoria Rebensburg had resigned, Thomas Dreßen had undergone hip surgery, two of the best athletes of the previous winter, of all people. The remaining forerunners then donated some encouragement, including Straßer, who came sixth in the second slalom of the winter, but only Alexander Schmid managed to make a podium visit in the parallel race in Lech / Zürs. Until Straßer started in Zagreb on Wednesday, the first of six slaloms this January. And the 28-year-old from TSV 1860 Munich managed this first as flawlessly as a young powder snow slope: a brisk, but not too brisk first run, eighth place; then a second like in the “flow”, as Straßer later enthused: “That it will go all the way forward”, he admitted, he would of course have “never thought”, but good, he said, now again quite dry in the finish: ” Even more beautiful”.
The last German success in slalom came from a prominent ancestor: Felix Neureuther
German victories in the Alps are usually a rarity, the world leaders have been moving closer together for years, and that was something to be admired again in Zagreb. Only those who plunged into the course with the determination of a prairie horse could hope for victory at all. For the last German success in a World Cup slalom, of course, you didn’t have to rummage that deep in the archive: Felix Neureuther won in Levi in November 2017. Strasser had even won three quarters of a year earlier in Stockholm for the first time in the highest league of alpine sports, but not in the special slalom, but in a parallel event that still does not experience undivided affection in the college. At that time, Straßer had already come very close to the podium in the slalom, finishing fifth in Schladming, albeit in January 2015. And now, the leap forward?
Strasser’s winter had recently started at a moderate temperature, in preparation he hadn’t taken slight pain in his left knee very seriously, and what started out small soon turned into a bigger obstacle: A tendon was inflamed, Strasser missed three months of snow training. The first attempts in the new winter were correspondingly bumpy, 29th place in the parallel race in Lech / Zürs, 18th place at the start of the slalom in Alta Badia. In Madonna di Campiglio, shortly before Christmas, he raced back to sixth place; the road there already had a lot in common with the driver who had presented a few highly serious results among the top ten in the previous winter. But that it would be enough for victory in the next race?
“It’s a bit surreal,” said Strasser now. He would have missed the audience very much, because “shared emotions are the nicer ones in life”. He also “didn’t feel good” before the race, but in sport it is sometimes like this: “If you really want it, it doesn’t happen, and if you let it happen, it happens.”
Something like it had happened in Strasser’s career so far. Six years ago he stormed to the top of the world in slalom for the first time, 14th place in Kitzbühel, where he often skied with his parents as a child, then fifth in Schladming, where tens of thousands of people enjoy a gigantic après-ski break around the race organize where the drivers can share their emotions particularly well. In the years to come, however, Straßer had to learn that things just can’t go on like this. He got a bit careless, then he really wanted to do well, but as it is in sport: the athlete often achieves the opposite, especially in this hectic dance through the slalom poles, where millimeters separate between victory and a clear round. Only in the previous year was Straßer regularly among the world’s best. And now?
“Linus is tidier now, he has learned his lessons”, DSV Alpine Director Wolfgang Maier recently told the news agency dpa said: “He has understood the business and knows exactly what to do.” This was announced by a lonely scream on the night of Zagreb on Wednesday evening.
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