The debacle culminated at the end of the championship. Manuel Feller did not use the lead after the 1st round of the slalom and ended up without a medal – only seventh. At other times, it was even closer to gold for the Austrian colors. Nina Ortliebová lost only 0.04 seconds to the first place in the downhill…
The last time the Austrians experienced a championship without the most valuable metal was in Crans-Montana in 1987. In the medal balance, our neighbors finished in eighth place, according to statistics, the last time they were this low was in 1938, before the Second World War.
The top event without a gold medal threatened Austria in the Aare in 2019. But the situation was saved at the last moment by Marcel Hirscher in the slalom. It didn’t work out this time.
“We won seven medals, but the gold one is missing from our collection, and that hurts,” said Herbert Mandl, head of the alpine section of the Austrian Federation.
Biggest disappointment? Men’s sprint events. “Not winning a single medal in them is a poor performance. But the strong team also showed the same in the slalom,” the official further assessed.
According to ORF, the legendary Benjamin Raich, the overall winner of the World Cup in 2006 and a ten-time medalist at the World Cup, tried to see the situation less dramatically: “It is a disappointing result, but it must be said that it will happen quite quickly. But I am more concerned that we did not succeed in the junior championship in St. Anton. The union has a lot of work ahead of it. But we have to stay calm and it will be good in the end.”
