MFor several minutes Paulina Schlosser lay in the snow without moving. In what was only her second World Cup race, the ski racer in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, slipped away after a few goals and was thrown across the slopes. The 20-year-old athlete was treated by SC Kreenheinstetten for around 20 minutes on Saturday before she was taken away with the rescue sled. “Right lower leg fracture” was the bitter diagnosis of the German Ski Association after the race.
The victory in the giant slalom on Podkoren went to the Swede Sara Hector, who triumphed for the second time this Olympic winter after her success in Courchevel. French Tessa Worley came in second, 0.96 seconds behind, followed by last year’s winner Marta Bassino from Italy (+1.32).
Emma Aicher, as the second German starter, could not make it into the top 30. The youngster still needs a place in the top 15 to qualify for the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing. The 18-year-old hopeful has the next chance on this Sunday, when a slalom is on the program for the women in the same place. Jessica Hilzinger is still missing after a positive corona test.
The top duo around the American Mikaela Shiffrin and Petra Vlhova from Slovakia then hopes for an increase in performance. On Saturday Shiffrin landed in seventh place, Vlhova behind in 15th place. Because there is not enough snow in Maribor, the races will be held in Kranjska Gora this weekend.
Meanwhile, ski racer Alexander Schmid still has a good chance of a top placement in the spectacular giant slalom classic in Adelboden, Switzerland. After the extremely demanding and exhausting first run, the Allgäu is in ninth place. Julian Rauchfuss drove with the high starting number 37 to a remarkable 18th place in the intermediate ranking.
Schmid’s deficit on the podium is, however, already 1.69 seconds and 2.19 seconds separate him from the Swiss Marco Odermatt, who is in the lead. On ranks two and three follow overall World Cup winner Alexis Pinturault from France (+0.31 seconds) and the Croatian Filip Zubcic (+0.50).
In front of full grandstands at the foot of the legendary Chuenisbärgli, all runners had to struggle with the long and extremely difficult course and poor visibility. “I came across the last grains,” said Schmid on ARD. The Austrian Manuel Feller, who is in fifth place, emphasized on ORF: “It’s brutally difficult.”
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