Historic gold for Germany at the World Ski Championships
Schmid sensationally wins gold in the parallel slalom
Alexander Schmid won gold in the parallel competition at the Alpine Ski World Championships. The 28-year-old prevailed against the Austrian Dominik Raschner in the final and secured the first medal for the German Ski Association in the title fights in France.
Germany surprisingly won a gold medal at the Ski World Championships. Alexander Schmid sensationally won the parallel slalom. It is the first gold medal by a German man since Hansjörg Tauscher.
SSki racer Alexander Schmid sensationally won gold in the parallel competition at the Alpine World Championships in France. The Allgäu prevailed against the Austrian Dominik Raschner in the final in Méribel on Wednesday and celebrated the greatest success of his career so far. “I’m incredibly proud and overjoyed. It’s such a crazy day,” said Schmid.
It was a historic triumph: The athlete from SC Fischen brought the German Ski Association (DSV) their first medal in the current title fights and their first World Championship gold since Maria Höfl-Riesch won the alpine combination ten years ago in Schladming. Hansjörg Tauscher had won the last individual gold medal for German men at a World Championships in 1989 in Vail in the downhill.
Schmid gives the DSV a historic day
Which: REUTERS
Schmid’s teammate Linus Straßer failed in the round of 16. In the women’s quarterfinals, Lena Dürr lost to eventual world champion Maria Therese Tviberg from Norway.
The parallel races celebrated their world championship premiere two years ago in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. At that time, Schmid finished fourth. Overall, he likes the format very much. The 28-year-old was one of the German teams that won bronze at the 2021 World Cup in Cortina and Olympic silver at the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing.
Strasser dropped out
This time, too, he snaked his way down the slope impressively several times. In the first round – in the parallel competition the athletes compete against each other twice in each round – Schmid defeated the Italian Filippo Della Vite, in the second the Slovenian Zan Kranjec, in the semifinals the Norwegian Timon Haugan. In the gold fight with Raschner, he put in an outstanding first run and then didn’t let his lead be taken away.
“For me, Alex is one of the most brilliant giant slalom skiers in the World Cup. Today he really showed where his level is,” national coach Christian Schwaiger praised his protégé. Schmid can ski – the competition and those responsible in the German Ski Association (DSV) have known that for a long time. Only Schmid did not always seem completely convinced of his own performance. “Sometimes he doesn’t have the self-confidence to judge himself well,” said Schwaiger. Schmid should have it now at the latest.
And what does Schmid’s success mean for the German team after previously sobering World Cup days in France, in which the speed squad had gone empty-handed? “Now at least the pressure is off. You can imagine what an extreme relief that is for everyone who works here,” said Alpine Director Wolfgang Maier.
For Schmid everything that comes now is an encore. The pressure is gone. No bad omens for his favorite discipline giant slalom on Friday.
